New World, New Opportunities
by ranshin85
Summary: The world around Daryl has changed ever since they arrived in Alexandria and now it's about to change even more since he now has time to get to know himself. Daryl x Aaron fanfic. Rating M for later chapters.
1. The Aftermath

It had been a few weeks since Daryl and Aaron had brought Morgan back to Alexandria. When Daryl saw Rick execute that guy he first thought that the moment had come and his group would take over Alexandria like they had spoken about. But Deanna quickly resolved the situation by sending everyone besides Rick's group and Jesse's family back home and announcing a town meeting for the next day to deal with the incident and decide how to go from there.

While Maggie took the three of them aside and explained what happened, Deanna and the rest of the group brought Reg's body back to Deanna's house. Even though Morgan still was skeptical but he agreed to follow to Deanna's house to talk with Rick and the others.

After that a lot changed in Alexandria. Deanna seem to have realized that the people of Alexandria couldn't live in their bubble anymore. She ordered that every citizen had to participate on regular shooting practice, supervised by Michonne and Sasha. Glenn carefully selected a few of the better shots to train them for their raids, so no more would have to die if they go outside. And Morgan filled in Deanna and especially Daryl and Aaron about the wolves. At least as much as he knew, not that it was that much to begin with. Rick still worked as the constable but a lot of the older residents still were skeptical about him, even though Deanna tried her best to make them clear that he maybe wasn't all that crazy as he might seemed.

During all that time, Daryl still tried to keep a low profile and pretty much stuck to his own group. From time to time some of the women tried to start a conversation with him, when they met him on his way outside the walls to shoot some rabbits, but he just didn't know what to say to them. So he mostly just smiled at them awkwardly and walked away. He didn't even understand why they even bothered with him.

Since he hasn't been out recruiting with Aaron since "the incident", today was another day where he spent his day with hunting. Deanna stopped recruiting for now, to give the residents of Alexandria time to get used to the changes. After a successful hunt he was sitting on the porch of Rick's house and skinned rabbits while he watched Carol doing some gardening work. As he looked up a younger woman, who has tried to talk to him, before walked by. When she saw him she immediately smiled and waved at him.

Daryl just watched her walking by and then turned to Carol: "Do you think they're planning something?"

Carol looked up from the patch she was working on and asked confused: "Who?"

"You know... the others!" It was clear that he meant the residents that were here before his group arrived.

"Why would you think that? Did you saw something?" She looked a little alarmed.

"I don't know, it's just... every time I see one of them, they always try to make small talk or ask me how I'm feeling."

The last thing he would have expected was Carol laughing out loud after this statement.

"What is so funny?" Daryl asked confused.

"Oh my sweet Daryl." Carol smirked at him. "Let me ask you something. Is it possible, that they were all women?"

Daryl scowled at her. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"I've heard a few of them talking about when I was at the storehouse, but I didn't expect them to actually trying to approach you. With all that bad guy-vibe you have going and all. But I guess that makes you even more desirable."

Daryl looked at her with a blank expression.

Carol gave him a light clap on the back of his head. "They were flirting with you! You may not realize it but you're a very handsome man, Daryl Dixon."

His only respond to that was to blush slightly and then grabbing the last remaining rabbit to skin it.

"I don't understand why you never had a fling or anything like that with somebody anyway. You can't tell me that you've never had the opportunity. Besides me I mean." She grinned at him.

He looked up and shot her an apologizing glance. Then he stood up to bring the skinned rabbits into the kitchen. While he was walking into house he heard her saying: "That not what I meant. But don't you think right now would be the perfect opportunity to get yourself some? Maybe you should give them a chance, you would deserve it!"

While he was dropping the rabbits on the counter, he was thinking about what Carol just said. Since the whole zombie thing has started he never had given it much thoughts. Mostly because his mind was always occupied with other things like finding food, shelter or fighting against walkers.

Come to think he never actually had met someone he would even had considered for some sort of romance or whatsoever. But even before all this has started he just wasn't the type for relationships or falling in love with someone on the first sight. The only time he remember to be in love was in high school when he had a huge crush on Christine Tanner. Unfortunately she was the most popular girl in school and never even noticed him. After that he only had hooked up with some girls from time to time, but mostly because his brother almost forced them on him and he didn't want to be a virgin for the rest of his life.

To be honest he always felt a little uncomfortable around most girls (except Carol and Beth) and he didn't really liked when they were flirting with him. He felt way more comfortable around guys and sometimes he wondered if he might doesn't like girls "that way" at all. But every time his mind wandered that direction, he heard the voice of his brother in his head and he convinced himself that he just haven't met the right girl yet. Maybe he really should try to get to know some of the single women of Alexandria.

While deep in thought he suddenly heard a knock at the door. He saw Aaron looking through the back door and gesturing him to open the door. Feeling kinda caught he needed a few seconds to restore himself. For a second the thought crossed his mind that Aaron appearance right at this moment might be some kind sign of a higher power to point his mind in the right direction. He shacked his head to get rid of these silly thoughts. Apparently Aaron interpreted that wrong. He made an apologizing gesture towards Daryl and was about to leave. Daryl quickly made his way to the door and stopped Aaron.

"What is it?" Daryl asked.

Aaron never had come over to their groups houses before, so there must be a reason. Has Deanna decided that they could start recruiting again?

"I'm sorry, is this a bad time?" Aaron asked uncertain.

Daryl tried to avoid eye contact with Aaron, because he felt kinda caught, not that he obviously was really doing something wrong. "No, I just... nevermind. What do you want?"

"Well, I guess I have a mission for us."


	2. Chasing the Wolves

"You want to go after the wolves?" Daryl looked at Aaron in disbelief.

"I don't want to go after them, I just want to find out more about them and if they're a threat to Alexandria. They're obviously some kind of scavengers, after all what Morgan told us and what happened in that food factory. They set up traps to take out people,who knows what else they're doing." Aaron explained.

Daryl didn't answer right away and took his time to think about it. He didn't like what had happened back there. It had reminded him too much about Terminus. If Morgan hadn't showed up, they both would have ended up dead or at least he would. Aaron probably thought he just wanted to play the hero when he had decided to go out that car alone to distract the walkers from it, so that Aaron could emerge. But that wasn't the only reason.

When he realized that he would been trapped in that car for hours, he felt like a wounded prey in a trap. The fact that Aaron was there with him didn't make it any easier. He really liked Aaron, but he was starting to think that maybe he liked him a little too much. No one had ever manage to break his wall down so easily and make him feel on ease. His warm smile always made Daryl's heart jump a little. It impresses him that someone so friendly still could be so badass when the situation required it. And with death starring him in the face, literally and figuratively, he wasn't sure what he might have done if he had been trapped with him in such a small space for longer.

"So, what do you say?" Aaron interrupted the silence.

Daryl suddenly realized in what direction his mind has wandered off again. He averted his eyes from Aaron's intense, questioning stare and answered: "What exactly did you have in mind?"

Aaron face lit up and he quickly filled Daryl in on his plan.

"I think we should go back to the food factory and stand watch until the wolves come back there. I'm pretty sure they will set up the trap again and it won't be long until they come back to see if they caught someone. When they get there, we can follow them to their camp or find out what they're doing exactly."

When Daryl didn't answer, he continued: "I've already talk to Deanna about it and she gave us the green light."

"So it would be just the two of us?"

"Yes. Less Attention. Why? Is that a problem?"

"No, it just sounds kinda dangerous. I don't want to endanger other people for nothing."

"You won't. I've watched your group for two weeks and no one of you has ever noticed me. I know how to cover my tracks."

This seemed to convince Daryl. "Alright, anyway better than just sitting around and shooting rabbits. When do we go?"

"Meet me tomorrow morning at my house. Maybe bring some supplies. We don't know how long we have to hold out there."

When Daryl parked his bike in front of the house the next morning, Aaron was stepping out of the house with Eric right behind him. He saw Eric grabbing Aaron's arm and pulling him in for a passionate kiss. Aaron grinned at Eric when he finally pulled away and made his way to the car, that's when he noticed Daryl starring at them. A little insecure smile appeared on his face when he walked over to Daryl.

"Sorry for that. I didn't see you there."

"Why would you apologize for that?"

"Because... you know."

"Because I'm a fucking redneck?" Daryl frowned at him.

Aaron looked shocked. "What? No! It's just, that a lot of the people here are still a little uneasy when they see Eric and I together like that. They'd never say anything, but you can see it in their faces."

"Doesn't bother me. You're kinda cute." When Daryl realized what he just said, he blushed slightly and then added: "I mean, you and Eric, as a couple. Haven't seen much of that since the whole thing started."

Aaron couldn't help but chuckle at Daryl's expression. "Shall we go then?"

"Let's ride."

They arrived at the food factory a few hours later and parked their vehicles in a spot a few hundred yards away where bushes and trees would hide them from being spotted quickly. After they've tooled up, they made their way through the small forest that surrounded the factory.

Aaron led the way, with his weapon ready to fire, scanning the forest for any sign of Walkers or Wolves, Daryl right behind him with his back to him, to protect their back side, in case someone followed them.

As Aaron heard the sound of a breaking branch, he quickly spun around and grabbed Daryl by his collar and pinned him against the nearest tree. A surprised sound escaped Daryl's throat which caused Aaron to clap his weaponless hand over his mouth to silence him. Aaron starred at him to signal Daryl to stay quiet, but clearly concentrated his ears to the sounds surrounding them to figure out what has startled him in the first place.

Daryl himself just stood there frozen for a few seconds and felt the warmth that spread from Aaron's surprisingly firm body. He had to held back a moan at the thought of it and felt guilty the very next moment. It neither was the right time for something like that nor was it appropriate. After all it wasn't only a few hours ago, since he has seen Aaron making out with his loving boyfriend. He almost sighed relieved when a squirrel past their way and Aaron finally let go of him.

Before Aaron could say anything, Daryl took the lead and continued their way to the food factory with his crossbow aimed. He hoped that Aaron wouldn't see the slight shaking of his hands.

They finally reached a small ledge, right above the factory compound, which allowed them to see the whole area, without being seen themselves.

To their surprise they immediately saw three persons carefully approaching the containers. A few walkers were walking around the area and they took them out with their knives while they were making their way towards the building.

Aaron and Daryl watched how one of them carefully approached a containers near the building and was about to open the door. But before he could even reach the handle, a shot was fired and his head exploded in a splash of blood and cerebral matters.

The remaining two members of his group just stood there for a couple of seconds before they run off in panic. But they didn't get far. Several people emerged from behind containers and aimed their guns at them. Apparently one of them shouted something at them, but Daryl and Aaron were too far away to hear it.

Aaron and Daryl looked at each other, alarmed.

"Do you think, they're the Wolves?" Aaron asked whispering.

"I guess." Daryl stayed quiet for a moment and tried to analyze what just has happened. "I don't think, that was planned. This three guys probably just interrupted them. I think they were in the middle of setting up the traps again."

"If that's the case, I think this is the perfect opportunity for us to find out what they really are. Aaron stood up and was about to leave.

"Wait! What do you think you're doing?" Daryl asked sharply.

Aaron stopped and said: "I 'm going to get the microphones from the cars. You stay here and watch them. I don't want us to miss anything. I'll be back in a few minutes. The car is just nearby, I know how to watch myself, Daryl."

Daryl still looked skeptical, and a little worried, but he nodded and turned his attention back to the scene below them.

Aaron carefully made his way back to the car. He opened the trunk of the car and was about to grab the gear when he heard a noise coming from the trees to his left, the direction to the factory. He turned his head and said: "Daryl, you didn't have to follow me, I'm..."

Before he could finish his sentence he was knocked unconscious by a hit on the back of his head.


	3. The Strike

**Author's note: So, this story is kind of a slow burn, so it take a few more chapters until Daaron will happen, just stay with it. Thanks to TraumScheiber for the review!**

* * *

While Aaron was gone, Daryl continued to watch the scenario beneath him. After a few minutes he started to get nervous. Shouldn't Aaron be back by now? The car was parked near by and it shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes to go there and come back.

He waited another couples of minutes but when Aaron didn't returned he decided to check on him. He slowly and carefully made his way through the small forest, looking out for any sign of something suspicious. When he was almost there, he heard the voices. There were at least 4 or 5 guys discussing in low voices, coming from the direction where Aaron had parked the car.

Daryl sneaked silently closer and took cover behind some close together standing trees to get a look at what was going on. He saw 6 guys standing around their vehicles, all of them had a W carved on their foreheads. Wolves! Daryl quickly scanned the area for Aaron and let out a shaky breath when he saw him lying near the trunk, a rope around his wrist. He didn't move, but was obviously still alive, otherwise they hadn't tied him up.

While he was thinking about what to do next, he heard one guy asking. "So what do we do now? The other guy still has to be here somewhere, if he hasn't took off."

"We can't wait here forever until he shows up. We have to go on with the plan, it already started to get dark and we need to be there at midnight." A bulky guy who seemed to be their leader answered. He pointed at three of the guys in front of him. "Brent, Morrigan, Chase, you stay here and find the guy. Me, Chad and Casey meet with the others."

"And what do we do with him, when we find him? Shoot him?"

"Only if necessary. Bring them to safe room in the factory for now. We'll bring them to Negan after we get back. These two could be quite usefull later. Especially this one." With that he kicked Aaron in the stomach. Daryl grithed his teeth at the sight of that and had to restain himself not to storm out and put an arrow in his head.

"Why is that?" The guy, who's name was Brent apparently, asked.

"Let's just say they're old friends. I'm sure Negan would love to have a little 'chat' with him" He turned around and got into car with one of the others, while the third guy climbed on Daryl's bike and the three of them drove off.

Brent took over the lead and commanded the other two to spread off to look for Daryl. After the other two guys had took off he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He was about to lit the cigarette when Daryl jumped out from behind the trees. Brent reacted quickly, but before could reach his gun in his belt Daryl had already shot an arrow through his left eye. He didn't even had time to make a noise, so Daryl was sure his buddies had no idea what just has happened. Daryl ripped the arrrow out of the dude's head and then dragged the body behind some bushes so that it wouldn't be spotted immediately in case one of the guys came back before he could take them out.

Daryl quickly checked on Aaron, before he made his way towards the factory to chase the other two guys down. Aaron was unconcious and had a bleeding wound on his head, but besides that his breath and heartbeat were regular. He checked the ground for other footprints than his owns or Aaron's and soon found a trail that led him directly to the guy named Morrigan. After he made sure that the other remaining member of their group was nowhere to be seen he shot the guy from behind. He didn't like to just kill people like that, but after what he had heard he knew there was no other way. They would either kill or capture him and none of both was an acceptable option for him. And there was still Aaron to protect.

He took a few second to catch a breath when he heard a noise a few steps to his right. Priming his crossbow, he dodged behind the next tree right before the guy named Chase stumbled on the trail. Chase saw his buddy lying dead on the ground and panicked. Obviously not as tough as he looked he let out a little wumpering sound and was about to run off, back to where Brent was supposely waiting. But when he turned around, he faced Daryl with his crossbow aiming at him.

"Don't shoot me! We're no here to harm you! We just want to talk." Chase raised his hands in defense and tried to crack a friendly smile.

Daryl just squinted at him over his crossbow. "I heard you guys talking, so don't bullshit me. What are you planing?"

"Oh, you heard that? Too bad. Look, I'm not like them, I just with them to survive. It's very hard to make it on your own out there. You sure know that." He made a little step forward and let his arms fall down, seemingly innocent.

"Just answer the question." Daryl pointed his bow to Chase's face.

"Sorry, no can do. They would kill me if I do." He made an apologising gesture.

"Anwer me or I will!"

Chase shook his head and put his hands on his hips. "Well, in this case..." He moved his right hand towards the gun in his belt, but before he could pull it out Daryl had already shot with his crossbow. The arrow hit him in his neck right below the chin. His hands shot up in an attempt to pull it out while he slowly fell on his knees and made gurgling sounds.

Daryl watched the poor guy dying slowly. He wished he hadn't had to do that, but the guy had left him no choice. And he still had no idea what the hell was going on here. But his main concern now was Aaron, so he stormed back to him.

Aaron was where he had left him, still unconcious, but at least the wound on his forehead has stopped bleading. He tried to wake him with a couple of light slaps on his cheek, but that unfortunately didn't work and he didn't dare to slap him harder in case Aaron's head injurie was more serious than he expected.

Daryl thought about what to do next. They couldn't stay here, there were still Wolves at the factory and who knows if they wouldn't show up her sooner or later. On their way here they have passed a little farmhouse with a barn next to it, about a quarter mile away from the factory. The house has looked trashed and was probably overrun by walkers, but the barn has seemed untouched. They could spend the night there, until Aaron wakes up or he could find a functioning car to get back to Alexandria.

Without a vehicle and an unconcious Aaron over his shoulder it took him over an hour to get the barn. It was already dark outside and he was exhausted. Luckily the barn door was only locked with a bar, so it didn't took long to break it open. He dragged Aaron inside and layed him down on a small pile of old hay. Then he locked the door thoroughly and took a look around in hope to find something usefull like water or food. All their supplies were in the car that those bastards have stolen. When he walked around in the back of the barn, where former owner had stashed some tools, he stumpled over something on the floor. On closer inspection he saw that it was the handle of a trapdoor. He had to shake it a liitle but when it finally opened, he let out a surpised whistle. "Now look what we got here!"

 _\- Meanwhile in Alexandria -_

Sascha's shift as the lookout in the tower was almost over when she saw Aaron's car and Daryl's bike coming through. She wondered for a second why they were back already. Maybe they have found a lead to the Wolves, quicker than expected obviously. The car stopped in front of the gate and the guard, a young woman named Sarah who had her first gate duty this night under Eric's supervision, opened it for them. The car and the bike drove inside and parked right behind the gate. Sascha turned her attention back to the forest that sorrounded Alexandria, because she thought he heard something walking through.

In the meantime Sarah was about to close the gate and greeted Aaron and Daryl over her shoulder. Out of the corner of her eye she saw more than one person getting out of the car, what struck her kind of odd. She turned around and the next second she saw a mean looking guy in front of her. She opened her mouth to scream, but the strange man grabbed her and slit her throat, before a single sound could escape her mouth.

In that moment Eric walked out of the house right next to the gate where he has taken a bathroom break. Surprised to see Aaron's car he stopped and wanted to call Aaron out when someone, who had lurked in the shadow to his left, grabbed him in a headlock and hold a hand over his mouth. He felt a knife being pushed against his throat and a rough voice wispered in his ear. "Don't make a noise or I'll cut your throat like your little friend's over there." The guy behind him nodded in the direction where Eric saw a body lying on the ground. A puddle of blood around it that got larger every second and shone slightly in the moonlight. Eric froze and had to fight back tears, when he saw the poor girl lying there. "Such a waste but there was no way around. Now... show us where you stash your supplies and nobody else has to die..."


	4. Midnight

Daryl barely believed his eyes when he looked down onto the room under the trap door. On the sidewalls were shelves stocked with all sorts of jars of preserved fruits, pickled vegetables and tinned meat. At one end of the room he saw something that looked like a small distillery. Looks like someone used to make his own moonshine. The bottles next to it confirmed his suspicion. Right across on the other side of the room were canisters filled with gas. He hit the fucking motherload.

"Jackpot." Daryl murmured when he climbed down the small ladder. He grabbed one of the bottles with the clear liquid and a few jars and tins and brought them back to where Aaron was still lying. He found a rag that looked clean enough and opened the bottle of moonshine. A quick sniff test confirmed that it was in fact moonshine. Before drenched the rag with the booze he took a big swig, why not make the best of it when he was stuck here with Aaron anyway. Not to mention that this day had really worn him out, he could need a distraction.

He started cleaning the wound on Aaron's forehead just to be sure, a blood infection was the last thing they needed right now. While doing so, he had time to study Aaron's face. His gaze wandered over Aaron's closed eyes with the long lashes and wandered down the elegante nose. Aaron's mouth was slightly open while he was breathing calmly. Daryl couldn't resist to lightly caress his underlip with his thumb. It felt so soft and Daryl wondered what it would feel like to press his lips against it. Lost in thoughts it took him a second or two to notice that Aaron was slowly opening his eyes.

"Daryl?" Aaron asked with a cracked voice. "What are you doing?"

Daryl quickly withdrew his hands and just gaped at him because he didn't know what to say to that.

"That burns!" Aaron said, trying to touch his forehead.

Daryl grabbed his wrist. "Don't! I just desinfected it."

Aaron closed his eyes. "Right... someone knocked me out." He opened his eyes again and smiled at Daryl. "Thanks for taking care of me."

"Just wanted to make sure it doesn't get infected." Daryl said with his gaze fixed to the rag in his hand.

"Where you a nurse or something in your former life?" Aaron asked with a grin. "I bet you would look good in an uniform." Aaron chuckled.

Daryl looked at him flabbergasted. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." Aaron hurried to explain when Daryl continued to stare at him. "I guess I'm still a little out of it from the blow."

"No need to apologise." Daryl said with a slight smile.

"By the way... what did you use?" Aaron pointed to his wound. "It smells like booze."

"Moonshine."

"Seriously?" Aaron paused. "I have to be honest, I've never had moonshine before. Hand it over!"

Daryl grabbed the bottle but hesistated to give it to Aaron. "You sure? I don't think that's a good idea with your injur..." Before he could finish the sentence Aaron had already stole the bottle from him and took a big gulp. For a few seconds nothing happened but then Aaron grimaced and started coughing furiosly.

"Oh my good, it tastes horrible!" Aaron exclaimed, before Daryl took the bottle back. They sat there in silence for a while. Daryl took another swip and handed the bottle back to Aaron. He watched Aaron setting the bottle on his lips before he finally blurted out what has swirling around in his mind for the last couple of minutes.

"Do you find me attractive?"

Aaron choked on the moonshine and started coughing again. It took him a few minutes before he was finally able to look at Daryl. His face was bright red and Daryl wasn't sure if it was because of the choking or because of his question.

"Daryl, I was just joking before! I wasn't coming on to you!" Aaron said defensively.

"What? No! I know that! It's just..." Now it was Daryl's turn to blush furiously. The mental image of Aaron flirting with him crossed to his mind and it almost drifted to a nice little daydream about that when he catched a glimpse on Aaron's puzzled expression. He shook his head in attemp to remember what he was about to say before. Damn moonshine! He didn't even meant to ask Aaron that. But it was too late now.

"There are some girls in Alexandria who where overly friendly lately and Carol meant they were flirting and I just can't believe it. Usually people are scared of me or think I'm a stupid hillbilly. So I wondered what you think, because you're... you know..." Daryl trailed off.

"Because I'm handsome?" Aaron asked mischievously.

"No! I mean of course you are, but that's not what I meant. You know what? Just forget I asked." Daryl attempted to stood up, but Aaron grabbed his veste to stop him.

"Oh, come on, Daryl! I was just mocking you! Sit back down." Daryl sat down again. They sat in silence for a few seconds before Aaron spoke up again.

"Did you just say I'm handsome?" Aaron chuckled slightly.

Daryl's mouth fell open, but no word came out. He realized that he had in fact said that. Before he could come up with an intelligent answer Aaron continued.

"You're very handsome too by the way." Aaron snickered. "Eric and I were wondering if we may get the chance to see you working on your bike shirtless someday... on a very hot day or so..." When he saw Daryl blush even more, he couldn't stop himself to laugh out loud.

"Okay, that's it." Daryl grabbed the bottle from Aaron and put it behind a pile of ropes that lay around. "I think you had enough. Here, eat that, it'll help to soak off some of the booze" Daryl handed him a tin of pork in gravy.

Aaron rolled his eyes and murmured something that sounded a lot like 'spoilsport' to Daryl, but started to eat the meat. "Okay, okay. Let's change the subject. Tell me what happenned after I got knocked out and..." He took a look around. "where the hell are we anyway?"

Daryl suddenly realized that his chance to spend some alone-time Aaron had totally distracted him from the danger that they were actually in. He didn't like it. He already started to get weak, even if he had sworn to himself that he wouldn't let get Alexandria get to him. Yet he was sitting here and talked about sillly things while these Wolves-assholes were out there to pull another of their horrible stunts to rip off some poor, oblivious people and maybe kill them. And who knew if they weren't after him or Aaron after he killed three of their men.

Daryl looked at Aaron with a stern expression. "You didn't came back so I went looking for you. There were these guys standing around our rides and you knocked out on the ground. Three of them drove away with my bike and your car. I think we interrupted them, it sounded like they were up to do something else, no idea what. The rest of them started to look for me. Apparently they wanted to bring us to their leader or whatever." Daryl furrowed his brows while he tried to remember the name. "Megan or something..."

When he heard the name, Aaron sobbered up in a blink. He looked at Daryl bewildered. "Negan..?" Aaron asked croaked.

"Yes! So you do know him?" Daryl asked. "I thought they confused you with someone else when this one guy called you old friends."

"We're not friends. He was one of the guys we've kicked out of Alexandria! You know what that means? They know where Alexandria is!" Aaron swallowed hard and grabbed Daryl's arm violently. "You said there were up to something..."

Daryl nodded. "I think it has to do with the three guys we saw at factory, they have dragged the other two into the factory when I left looking for you."

Aaron looked at him with big eyes and his voice was no more than a whisper. "I don't think so... I think they are going to Alexandria."

 _\- Meanwhile in Alexandria -_

Eric leaded the way to their storage house whit the knife still pressed tightly against his throat. He tried to think about a way to warn the others without getting killed in an instant. Maybe he was lucky and Michonne would come by of one of her rounds through Alexandria but he doubted it. She had just checked on him and Sarah half an hour ago and was probably walking among the fence on the other side of town.

When they arrived at the storage house the knife-guy made a sign with his hand to someone behind Eric, that he couldn't see. Suddenly six guys passed by them and of them started to break the lock on the door. Eric wondered where the hell these guys came from. They couldn't all have been in Aaron's car. They probably came through the still open gate, so there was a chance that Sascha has seen them stealing into Alexandria. But if she had, why didn't he hear the alarm bell or shots?

They finally broke the lock and stormed into the house. Through the door Eric saw them start rummaging through their inventory and packing goods into big bags they had brought with them. The guy holding the knife to his throat stayed outside with him, probably as the look-out. It took them only a few minutes to fill all their bags. After that they quickly made their way back to the car, dragging Eric with them and stowed the bags on the back seat of the car. That's when Eric heard the first shot. One guy was thrown back at the car when he was hit in the shoulder and let out a loud groan. The others reacted quickly and drew their weapons.

Sascha had watched the forest attentively for more signs of walkers when she noticed someone in the corner of her eye. There was a shadow running along the wall of Alexandria towards the gate. She aimed her weapon at the runner but it was too dark to exactly make out if he was one of their own or a stranger. Then she throw a quick glance to the gate and became aware that the gate was still open. What the fuck was going on down there? She quickly decided against shooting the guy, until she knew what was going on in Alexandria. She run down the tower and sneaked towards Alexandria as fast as she could without drawing attention to her. Still a few yards away she could see Aaron's car and Daryl's bike that were still parked inside, only a few steps away from the open gate. At first she couldn't see anyone, but then she saw a group of people walking fast towards the gate coming from the mainroad in Alexandria. Unsure if those were Alexandrian or some strangers, she decided to hide in the empty house right next to the gate and take up position by the broken window that faced the gate.

Looking through the scope of her rifle she could see a body lying next to Aaron's car, not moving. Now sure that there was in fact something bad happening, she focussed on the group that almost reached the vehicles. As soon as they were in her line of fire and no longer shielded by the car she aimed for his head and shot. Unfortunately the guy used this second to bend down and she only hit his shoulder. Without waiting for them to react she aimed for the next guy. She saw that two of the guys had jumped into the car and started to back out of Alexandria. The others were about to draw their weapons while they stumbled to the exit while trying to figure out where the shot came from.

When Eric heard the second shot fired, the guy who held him has started to fumble for his weapon and Eric felt that the knife was no longer pressed against his throat. He used the opportunity to squirm free from the grip and punched the guy in the gut. He tried to snap the knife, but the other guy recovered quickly from the hit and they started wrestling for the knife. They fell to the ground and the guy managed to stoop over Eric and tried to stab him, but Eric managed to get a grip on his hand. Eric hold him in place for a couple of seconds, but when he realized that the guy slowly overpowered him and the knife was slowly coming closer to his face, he chanced his plan. He bend his knee on one side and used the leverage to push the guy off him and quickly rolled out of the reach of the knife. Before the guy could go after him again, he was hit by a shot in his chest and collapsed. Eric just sat there for a few second to catch his breath and scanned the area around him. The car was already gone and the rest of the guys were running out the gate while firing their guns towards someone outside, probably Sascha. There was a rustle behind Eric, but he couldn't hear it over the gun shots. He robbed towards the knife that lay next to the dead Wolve, when the walker that was once Sarah sprang at his back. He tried to turn around and drive the knife into her scalp when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.

Sascha came running through the gate and saw Eric trying to shake off the turned Sarah. She didn't hesistate and shot the formerly nice girl in the head. She hold her hand out to help Eric stand when she saw him clasping his left shoulder. Small streams of blood poured between his fingers. When Eric looked up to her, she didn't need to ask. It was written all over his face. He was bitten.


	5. Back home

**Author's note: I'm not really a touchy-feely person, so I had some trouble with writting this chapter, but I hope it didn't come out too bad.**

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"We have to go back to Alexandria as fast as we can." Aaron said, while he started to examine every corner of the barn. "Did you see a car or something on the way here?"

"No." Daryl answered. "But I saw a small shed on the side of the barn, maybe they've stored some bycicles or something in there." Aaron was already out the door before he could even finish that sentence. Daryl followed him outside, taking his crossbow with him, in case they came across some walkers.

Aaron attempted to open the door of the shed, but it was locked with a small metal lock. He searched the ground around the barn for something to break it open and soon found a hand-sized stone. With that he mauled the lock until it finally broke off the door and fell to the ground. He quickly opened the door and stepped inside. His eyes needed a few seconds to get used to the dark. There were a bunch of gardening tools in front of him but on his left side he saw something covered up with a cover. He removed it and let out a little whoop when he found a small moped. He quickly pushed down the gas with his foot but nothing happened. Getting desperate he tried a few more times before he kicked the moped and let out a frustated moan.

"Bring it into the barn and let me have a look at it. Maybe I can do something about it." Daryl said, when he got into the shed. Aaron's eyes filled with hope again and he hurried to roll the moped into the barn.

While Daryl inspected the moped, Aaron nerviously paced from one side of the barn to the other. Daryl opened the gas tank and discovered that it was empty. "I guess I found the problem, the tank is empty. There's a trap door in the back, grab me one of the canisters down there, will you?"

When Aaron returned with the canister, Daryl filled the tank and tried the gas pedal again. Now the engine turned over immediately and emitted a steady purr. Aaron clapped his hands happily and started gathering their stuff into his backpack. Then he attempted to take seat on the moped Daryl quickly stopped him "What do you think you're doing?" Daryl asked deadpan.

Aaron looked at him confused so Daryl continued "If anybody is riding this thing, than it's me. You're ridding shotgun." With that he climped the moped and Aaron took seat on the luggage rack but not without rolling his eyes at Daryl. When Daryl started the moped Aaron almost fell off from the motion and quickly grabbed Daryl by the waist to steady himself what lead Daryl to dipsy-doodle for the first few yards. It was the closest that Aaron ever got to him and he had to admit that it felt nice, very nice in fact. But when he remembered where they were heading, he pulled himself together and pushed his inappropriate thoughts beside.

When the sun started rising, they were still underway. They had switched seats twice because Aaron started complaining about his sore butt because the rack was anything but comfortable to say at least. An hour later they finally saw the silhouette of Alexandria in the far. Aaron let out a little relieved sigh when they saw that the gate was closed and that there were no signs of an attack or anything. They arrived at the gate and Aaron jumped off the moped.

"Hey, open up. It's Aaron and Daryl!" He yelled while he pounded at the gate with his fists.

Someone opened up the cover of the gate and glanced through to check who stood in front of the gate. It was Michonne. When she saw Aaron and Daryl, she quickly checked the area around them to make sure they alone and then opened the door for them. As soon as they were inside, they saw that Daryl's bike was parking directly behind the gate,

Aaron immediately stopped in his track and turned around to face Michonne. The worried look on her face caused a queasy felling in his stomach. "How did Daryl's bike get here? What the hell happened? Are you all okay?" He demanded to know.

Michonne shot Daryl a quick glance and cleared her throat. "We were attacked last night. The Wolves, they managed to get inside and stole our supplies. They shot Sarah and..." She hestitated for a second and seemed to search for the right words "Aaron, I'm so sorry, but Eric, he..."

Aaron grabbed Michonne by her arms and shook her slightly. "Is he dead?" He asked her with big eyes and panic in his voice.

"No, he's in the infirmary, but... Aaron!" Aaron didn't wait for the rest and stormed off towards the infirmary. She tired to stop him but he just shook her off. She turned to Daryl and he could see on her pained expression, that something was definitively not right.

"How bad is it?" Daryl asked.

"He got bitten. In the shoulder." Michonne whispered and closed her eyes. "There is nothing we could do to save him. The fever has already started and it won't be long until he..." She didn't finish that sentence, but there was no need for it anyway. They have seen it happened enough times before and knew how it ended.

"Dammit!" Daryl stated and then went after Aaron.

Aaron stormed into the infirmary, ignoring Denise who was rummaging in the medicine cabinet and quickly spotted Eric in one of the beds. He had a bandage over his shoulder and seemed fine otherwise. But when he got nearer he saw that he had sweat on his forehead and had a pained expression on his face. Aaron walked over shakily and took one of Eric's hand. It felt hot. Eric opened his eyes and Aaron saw that they had a fevery glance. A little smile creeped on Eric's face when he got sight of Aaron. "I'm so glad you're here. I thought I wouldn't get the chance to see you one more time." Eric said weakly.

"Eric, what happened?" Aaron asked croaked.

"I was stupid. I didn't see her coming and when I did it was already to late." Eric slightly pulled on the bandage on his shoulder, to show Aaron the wound.

Aaron looked shattered when he realized what he saw. Eric has been bitten by a walker! Of all the things that he had expected, that was the worst. This couldn't be happening "Oh my god, Eric..." His eyes filled with tears and he could barely hold it back. He just sat there and tried to wrapp his mind around it.

Eric raised his hand a and slightly caressed his cheek. "It's okay, Aaron. We knew that would happen someday. We should feel lucky that we even made it that far. Others hadn't as much luck as we had. We've had two more years together, we should be gratefull for that." Eric said with a sad smile.

Aaron swallowed hard. "This can't be it. There has to be a way, I can't just let you die!"

"There's nothing we can do." Eric said softly. "And you know it."

Aaron couldn't hold back his tears any longer. He burrowed his face into Eric's chest and Eric stroked his head, "You have to promise me something, Aaron."

Aaron slightly raised his head and looked at Eric with tearstained eyes.

"Don't die with me..." Eric croaked.

Daryl has been standing outside the door the whole time, unsure whether he should go inside to stand by Aaron in this hard time or just give them their privacy. He finally couldn't take it anymore and rushed outside. He found Rick, Michonne and Carol standing in front of the house. When she saw his face, Carol came over to him and engulfed him in a tight hug. They stood like that for a few minutes before he had gathered himself enough to face Rick and Michonne.

"Tell me everything that happened last night." He demanded and they filled him in of everything they knew and what Eric had told them. Rick and Michonne left after that, but Carol stayed with him and tried him to come to their house so she could feed him some comfort food but he refused. He wanted to be here in case Aaron needed him.

Night fell and Daryl was still waiting in front of the infirmary, pacing angrily from on side to other. He was mad at himself, mat at the Wolves and mad at the world in general. His anger finally expressed itself and he started punching a tree near the house until his knuckles were bloody.

"Daryl?" He heard a voice behind him and when he turned around, he saw Carol standing there, with a casserole in her hand. She sat down at the porch and gestured him to sit beside her. He took a couple of deep breaths and finally made an effort and sat down too. Carol handed him he casserole. As soon as the smell hit his nose, he realized that he was hungry as hell and he grabbed the offered fork and started to dig in.

After a few minutes just watching him eat, Carol finally opened her mouth "So, are you going to tell me what that tree did to you?"

He took his time to chew the big bite he has taken. "It's my fault, you know?" He finally answered.

"What do you mean?"

"All of this! The attack, Eric, everything." When Carol looked at him puzzled he told her what has happened at the food factory.

"And how does that make it your fault? It was six against one, you had no chance to take them all out before they could steal the car. You're good but no one is that good." She said enthusiastically.

He couldn't help but smile a little at that but quickly got serious again. "That's not the point. I know that I couldn't stop them from taking the car. But you know what? I was actually kinda happy that Aaron and I stranded there, because it meant he and I would have some time alone, you know... without Eric. And then we come back here and Eric is bitten. It's like Aaron got punished for my stupid feelings." He angrily clenched his fist.

Carol first looked at him confused and then he could almost see how a light dawned on her. "Feelings like romantic feelings?"

Daryl avoided her gaze, embarassed and a slight blush crept on his cheeks.

"Oh my god, that explains a lot!" Carol stated. "Especially why you turned me down when I offered you a free shag back then." She grinned at him for a second.

"I'm not gay or so, it's just... I just like him, okay?" He said defensively. "Not that anything would ever happened anyway. Especially now."

"You certainly don't make it easy for yourself, that's for sure." Carol stood up and shot him an empathetic look. "And if you want to blame anyone for what happened, then you better blame those fucking Wolves. We'll make sure that they pay for what they've done." She was about to leave when suddenly the door opened and Aaron stepped outside.

He was very pale, his eyes red and his lips were pressed together to a small line. In his right hand he hold a bloody knife. When his gaze met Daryl's questioning gaze he started shaking and the knife fell to the floor. "Eric, he... he's gone..."


	6. Good Will Hunting

**Author's note: So this chapter is more like a filler, but I wanted to make it a little clearer how the wolves work in my version. I've read had some of the comics but honestly don't really remember much of their storyline so I hope I don't spoil anything. I bet we will see a completely different version from them in the show in the next season. Oh, and if you have suggestions or ideas for this storyline, than I'd love to hear it. I have kind of an idea how it will go, but I'm not really adamant about it. And sometimes stories just have a way to go in their own direction as soon as you start writting. So, enjoy the new chapter, the next one will be up in a few days.**

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Carol had led Aaron back to his house after Eric passed away. Daryl wanted to follow them but he didn't know what he could possibly say to make him feel better. So instead he decided to check with Deanna about Eric's funeral. After Reg had been killed they've converted one of the patches where they grew vegetables into a small cementry. And so he spent the rest of the day by digging a hole so everything would be ready for the funeral.

Everybody came to the ceremony the next day, but Aaron refused to speak, he was still too shaken by Eric's death and just stood there petrified. So Deanna and Maggie undertook the task to say a few nice things about Eric. Nobody of the older residents seemed to have the need to do the same. Even though Aaron and Eric have had the almost most important task in this community before, none of the Alexandrians seemed to have valued it properly.

Maybe Aaron was right when he had told Daryl that they were still outsiders, even if the people treated them friendly. It was probably the first time they've made real friends when Rick and his group came to Alexandria, Daryl thought. And if Aaron needed anything right now, then it was friends. Daryl shot Aaron a quick glance. Aaron looked afflicted, but he didn't cry once during the whole thing. But when the others left after it, he just stood over Eric's grave, deep in thoughts until the sun settled.

Aaron hasn't left his house since the funeral, so three days later Daryl stood on his porch and tried to decide if he should knock on his door or not. He's done the same thing several times over the last couple of days, but he hasn't been able to bring himself to actually do it. He just wasn't sure what he should say when Aaron would open the door. He wasn't good in situations like that.

Carol had told him that she brought Aaron some homecooked food over the last three days but Aaron hasn't eaten anything. Every time she came by with a casserole he was sitting in the kitchen and stared out of the window. The next day she found her dish on the same place where she had left it, untouched. So she took the casserole and replaced it with a new one. Food was short at the moment, ever since the attack of the Wolves, so she didn't want to waste the precious meal. It would take Glenn and the others take a while before they could stock up their supplies again.

It was still early in the morning so Daryl was sure, that Carol hasn't stopped by yet. It gave him the idea, that a freshly hunted rabbit would give him the perfect angle to approach Aaron so he hurried to the arory before Aaron saw him standing in front of his door.

The guard on the gate first refused to let him out all by himself, but when he saw Daryl's grim visage he changed his mind and opened it for him. If anybody knew how to defend himself, then it was Daryl and everybody knew that he needed his time outside alone from time to time. Also, the whole community benefited from the fresh meat he often provided on one of his hunting sessions, when he managed to shot more animals than he needed for himself. One time he had actually managed to shot a deer and they had hold a little barbeque for the whole village.

Daryl roamed through the woods outside of Alexandria until he came across some rabbit tracks. He followed them until he came upon a well-fed rabbit that was busy nibbling on weeds and didn't notice the hunter. Daryl didn't hesistate and shot it with one well-aimed shot of his crossbow. Because it was still too early for lunch, he decided to continue his hunt after he'd tied the rabbit over his shoulder.

He was checking out some fresh tracks, when heard noises of slow, dragging steps. Mixed with low, guttural moanes he was sure there were some walkers nearby. He slowly made his way towards them, when he heard a groan that sounded way too human to be walker, so he quickened his pace. When he finally reached the source of the sounds, he saw a guy lying on the floor, fighting off a walker that was trying to bite him in the arm. Two other walkers were stumbling into their direction but didn't came far because Daryl shot an arrow through the eye of the first one and took out the second with the knife in his belt. He turned around to guy that was fighting with the other walker and saw that the human had managed to throw the walker off him and was drilling his knife through the back of his head.

Daryl pointed his crossbow at the man. The guy hold up his hands in a defensive manner, but he didn't stand up. Daryl let his eyer wander over his body, to make sure he didn't hid a gun somewhere, when he saw a makeshift bandage on his calf, drenched in dried blood. The guy lifted his head, so that his hair no longer covered his face and Daryl almost took a step backwards in surprise. This was the guy that had stolen Aaron's back at the food factory.

Daryl just stared at the bulky man in front of him, thinking about what to do next. The other man started to shift uncomfortably under his intense gaze and apparently decide to break the silence. "Hey buddy, you may wanna help out here? I had a little hunting accident and could really need some help." The guy obliviously thought he had met a lonely hunter that lived in the woods, based on Daryl's kind of dirty and rough appearance.

"Don't even try to bullshit me." Daryl made a step forward and without any other word kicked the guy in his face.

Crying out in pain, the other man protected his face and tried to crawl out of reach of Daryl's feet. "What the hell was that for?" He asked defensively.

"That was for knocking Aaron down." Daryl made another step forward and this time his feet landed in the other man's stomach. "And this is for the two innocent people you assholes killed in Alexandria." The hunter had to held himself back from beating the living shit out of the bastard.

The Wolve coughed a few times and then spit blood and saliva on the ground before he looked up at Daryl again. "Aaron? The fag we picked up at the food factory? So you're the guy Brent and the others were supposed to track. What did you do to them?"

"They're dead. Like you and the rest of your Wolve-buddies we'll be soon too." Daryl deadpanned.

The guy just chuckled. "You wish. We're way more than you and your friends in Alexandria. You don't stand a chance against us, but I guess you gonna see that yourself when they come back."

This got Daryl's attention. "What do you mean, when they come back?"

"You thought that was a one time thing? Normally we would have just killed all of you, but communities like yours deliver us with a steady replenishment of supplies. There so many of us, that we can't gather enough supplies just by robbing random people out there."

"And you think we just gonna hand them our stash? You have no idea with who you're dealing here." Daryl retorted.

"If you don't they will burn your village to the ground, it wouldn't be the first time." The guy looked at him with a vicious grin.

"Where is your headquarter?" Daryl asked, but the other man just stared at him. Getting angry again, Daryl kicked him in the gut, rolled the guy on his back with his foot and aimed his crossbow directly in his face. "Where are your friends hiding?"

"Fuck you! I'm done talking to you!" The man spit out.

"You're telling me now or you will end up with an arrow in your head."

"They'd kill me if I do. I'm dead either way, if I tell you or not. So just do what you have to do!" The guy closed his eyes, awaiting the arrow.

Daryl was tempted to just do what he asked, revenge for what they had done to Aaron and Eric and that poor young girl. It wouldn't bring Eric and Sarah back, but it take away some of the guilt he felt for letting the people of Alexandria and especially Aaron down. On the other hand he knew he should take that guy back to Alexandria. Maybe they'd be able to get more information from him about the Wolves and were to find them, although Daryl was fairly sure, the guy wouldn't tell them more than he already had. Also Daryl didn't really trusted Rick's sanity right now and tourturing prisoner didn't sit well with Daryl. It reminded him too much of the Govenor. But just letting the guy wasn't an option either.

While still struggling with his thoughts, faith made a decision for him. He suddenly heard the unmistakeable sounds of walkers behind him. It were at least half a dozen as far as he could tell. With one hand he grabbed on of the ropes he had wrapped around his shoulder while still aiming his crossbow at the man in front of him.

"Turn around and put your hands on your back." Daryl barked. Surprised the man opened his eyes and blinked confused but did what Daryl had demanded. Daryl tied his hands with the rope.

"If you wanna bring me back to your friends then you have to help me stand up. My leg, it's pretty bad, I can't walk by myself." The man said.

"I'm not bringing you back to Alexandria" Daryl said calmly and stood up.

The guy looked over his shoulder, even more confused. He obviously hadn't heard the walkers yet and looked almost relieved when Daryl started walking away without even looking back. As soon as Daryl was a couple of feet away, he tried and started wiggling his hands in order to get the rope off. He froze when he heard the sound of breaking branches near by soon followed by the typical groans of walkers. Panic flooded over him and he tried to stand up but his injured leg and the tied-up hands withhold him, so he cried out after Daryl. "Don't do this, man! You can't just leave me here! Please..!"

Daryl continued walking away slowly, until the cries of panic suddenly stopped and where replaced by the sound of ripping flesh. Then he quickened his pace, so the walkers wouldn't come after him too and hurried to get back to Alexandria, a grim but satisfied expression on his face.

He arrived in Alexandria fifteen minutes later and it took him about 5 minutes to convince the guard that he it was really him and that he hasn't been followed by anyone. Since the attack they were specially careful but he didn't mind as long as it meant that Aaron and his friends were safe.

His first thought was to go directly to Michonne or Rick, but then he decided to see Aaron first. He wasn't sure yet what he should tell them about what happened in the forest and needed to clear his mind first. So he knocked at Aaron's fiercefully until Aaron finally opened the door. He looked tired and opened the door only a gap, but Daryl ignored it and forced his way past him. Aaron just stood there for a minute, but then closed the door and turned around to face Daryl, a slightly surprised expression on his face.

"I have to tell you something." Daryl hurried to say with a little embarrassed smile, when he realized how rude his action might seem. Then he hold up the rabbit and added "Oh, and I brought lunch!"


	7. Grief

"Uh, thank you, Daryl. But I'm really not hungry." Aaron answered still a little overwhelmed by Daryl's sudden entrance.

"Well, guess what, I don't care. You haven't eaten in days and I won't let you starve yourself to death." With that he grabbed Aaron by his shoulders and directed him to the kitchen and made him take seat in one of the chairs by the kitchen table.

"It may surprises you, but I'm actually not that bad of a cook myself. After Merle had left home, it was up to me to care for the cooking if I wanted to eat something else than canned beans or mac and cheese." Daryl said while he started to get pans, knives and other tools from the different cabinets. On his way to Aaron he had made a quick stop at the vegetable gardens to fetch some potatoes and herbs which he know started to prepare to make a roast rabbit with baked potatoes. He prayed that the electricity wouldn't blackout during his cooking session.

Aaron just watched Daryl's preparations with a stoic impression. He really didn't feel like eating but he didn't dare to stop Daryl either. He has seemed very adamant about his intention to cook a meal for him and he was kind of curious to see what Daryl would actually produce in his kitchen. Next thing he knew was Daryl shoving a pot of potatoes in his hands and order him to wash and peel them so he stood up and stood beside Daryl, over the sink and started to do just that.

Hoping that preparing the potatoes would take Aaron's mind of Eric at least for a minute, Daryl started to skin and dissect the rabbit. That was until he heard a sharp hiss from Aaron and saw that Aaron had managed to cut himself with the peeler. Blood was droping all over the already peeled potatoes.

"I'm so sorry, Daryl." Aaron said while sucking on the cut on his thumb.

Daryl tooked the pot with the peeled potatoes and let some water run over it to clean it from the trops of Aaron's blood. "Don't worry, it's not your fault." He said, but when he looked into Aaron face, he startled. Tears had started welling in Aaron's eyes while he was staring at his hands.

"But it is my fault!" Aaron put his hands over his face to hide his tears. "It's my fault that Eric died! I told him to stay in Alexandria, I was the one who suggested to go back to the food factory to find the Wolves and because of that he died! I wasn't there to protect him, when it really mattered!" Aaron was shaking erraticly and tears ran over his face.

Daryl was shocked by Aaron's sudden outbrust and it almost broke his heart to see him in such pain. He grabbed Aaron and placed him in the chair again, handing him a towel. Aaron immediately burrowed his face into the towel and made asthmatic noise while he tried to calm himself down enough to speak. Daryl sat down besides him and stroke his back in a soothing gesture. After a few minutes his tears stopped and his breath became normal again. But Aaron still hold the towel over his face because he was just to embarrassed to face Daryl.

"Sorry that you had to see that. It just came over me." Aaron mumbled through the towel. "I never cry in front of other people, my mother always told me boys don't cry and when they do then no one is supposed to see it." then he added "Even in front of Eric I have only cried twice..."

Daryl cautiously tugged at the towel so he could see Aaron in the eye. Aaron reluctantly let him but avoided his gaze. His eyes were red and he looked like he was about to start to cry again any second so Daryl just continued to stroke Aaron's back and concentrated his gaze on the towel.

When he was sure his voice was steady, Daryl said "It's okay, you know. You've seen crying me too, haven't you?" Aaron turned his head to look at Daryl. "The night I've led my group to the barn?"

Aaron looked down at the towl in Daryl's hands and whispered "Yes." He was still for a minute but then continued "Who were you crying about?"

"Beth." Daryl answered.

"Was she your girlfriend?" Aaron asked while starting to play with the towel just to distract him from the uncomfortable feeling to just have cried in front of Daryl, the bad-ass hunter.

Daryl couldn't help but smirk at Aaron's question. "No, she was way too young for me. But I really liked her. She was Maggie's little sister. I never had much to do with her until after our group got seperated. She and I ended up in the woods together and that's when I really got to know her. We've talked a lot and I told her things I've never told anybody else before. She was such a sweet girl and had a big heart and that's what got her killed in the end." Daryl silenced for a while, lost in the memories of Beth.

"I was there when she got killed, you know. I stood just a few feets away from her yet I could do nothing to prevent it. Sometimes we do the best we can to protect the people we love and they die anyway. That's the world we live in now."

Aaron had listened silently, but now he took Daryl's hand and squeezed it gently. "I'm sorry for your lost, Daryl."

"Me too." Daryl stood up, because he didn't know how to handle the sudden closeness to Aaron and started to prepare the food again. "I came here to make you feel better, but I guess I've messed that up, didn't I?"

"No, I actually feel a little better." Aaron admitted, sounding a little surprised himself. Then he remembered something. "You said you wanted to tell me something when you came in. Was that it?"

Daryl froze, he had totally forgotten what had happened earlier. So he told Aaron about the Wolve he had found left behind in the woods. When he finished he finally dared to look Aaron in the face to see his reaction. When Aaron didn't say anything he wanted to explain himself. "I'm sorry I didn't bring him back here, I was just so angry and..." he trailed off.

"No, why should you have saved him? He didn't deserve better. None of them does." Aaron said bitterly. "But you have to tell Deanna and the others."

"I know, but I think I'm going to leave a few parts out. I don't think Rick would approve of what I did." Daryl interjected. Aaron just nodded to that.

Daryl continued with cooking while Aaron was deep in thought. An hour later the meal was finished and Daryl nervously presented the result to Aaron. Jolted by the sudden sound of the plate put in front of him Aaron pull himself together and inspected the food in front of him curiosly. I didn't look as bad as he expected and his stomach started rumbling. He cautiously tasted a little bite and his face light up.

"Wow, it's actually really good!" He beamed at Daryl.

"Don't sound so surprised. I'm kinda hurt." Daryl scowled and grabbed his chest in an exaggerated manner.

Aaron couldn't help but laugh. "I'm impressed. There's more in you then mets the eye, Daryl Dixon."

A slight blush crept on Daryl's cheek. He took a bite of his creation to calm himself down. "You know, I was thinking... How about we go looking for these other comminities the guy was talking about. Not right now of course. I understand that you need time and Glenn, me and a few others want to clean out that barn near the factory the next days anyway. But maybe after, in a week or two? I don't think it's good for you to hide in your house all the time and it's safer than going on runs or stuff like that. " Daryl elaborated.

"You're going back to that barn?"

"Yeah, we figured that the wolves won't dare to go near the factory the next few weeks. Not so soon after what they did to us at least. And there were plenty of supplies in that cellar. We're really short on food right now and it's kinda of a safe bet. Better than scout out new, unsafe places. Glenn is still a little shaken by what happen with Noah."

"Okay, I'll think about it. I just need a little more time." Aaron finally answered Daryl's earlier proposition and Daryl stood up and placed the dirty plates in the sink.

"I'd better going to see Deanna and Rick now, but if you need anything, then you know where to find me." Daryl said when he was on his way out. When he was almost out of the door, he felt Aaron lightly grabbing his arm.

"Thanks, Daryl. For everything." Aaron made a vague gesture around himself and the kitchen. Daryl just looked at Aaron with a warm smile in his eyes and nodded, before he left the house and closed the door warily.


	8. Back to Business

A few days have been gone since Daryl's visit at Aaron. He had told Deanna and Rick about the guy he had found in the woods. He had changed the end of the story, when he told them that he couldn't save the guy because they were suddenly overrun by walkers and he had to save his own skin rather then the Wolve's. Rick had looked suspicious, but didn't comment any further. But since they've heard that the Wolves would be back soon, they've decided to reinforce the wall, especially the area around the gate. They added plattforms to each side of the gate, to have the chance to see the other side of the wall, without removing the cover at the gate. Furthermore they would be able to parry off any attack without getting outside their little town, if it would actually come to that.

Today Glenn and Daryl wanted to clean out the stock in the barn near the food factory with the help of Eugen, Nicholas and a teenager named Jake, who's mother had needed a lot of convincing from her son, before she finally agreed to let him go outside the town with them. He had shown a talent when it came to shooting and Glenn was confident that he was smart enough to not get himself killed or endanger the others with some rash, stupid actions. This run would be his baptism by fire.

Daryl was checking his bike when he saw someone walking towards him. He didn't really took notice of the person until their shadow fell on him. Glancing up he was surprised to see Aaron standing in front of him. He had his distinctive backpack shouldered and watched him making preparations until Daryl realized his presence.

"You going somewhere?" Daryl asked nonchalant.

"Yes. I'm going with you. I'm going crazy if I have to stay locked in here any longer."

Daryl finished his inspection and reclined his head to took in Aaron's appearance. The dark bag under his eyes had almost vanished and he looked more alert than the last time he had seen him.

Over the past couple of days Aaron had started to leave the house again, mostly to go to the school to read stories to the younger children after their class. Apparently this was his way to deal with the horrible memories that haunted him. Plunging into the fairytales seemed to take his mind of his dark thoughts. And he was quite good at it too as far as Daryl could tell. He really acted out the stories he told the children and the kids loved the funny faces and ridiculous voices he made during it. Every day Daryl stopped by to watch Aaron putting on a show to entrall the children with the stories of the brother Grimm and others. Daryl couldn't help but smile to himself when he stood in the door frame and saw the sparkling eyes with which the kids used to drink in Aaron's performances.

"You sure about this?"

"Yes, Deanna said it would be OK." Aaron aswered sternly.

Daryl still wasn't convinced. "There's no seat left in the car and your car is gone..." In fact there were a free seat in Glenn's car but Daryl wasn't sure if Aaron was ready to go out there again.

"I'm riding with you, of course." Aaron smiled and then passed Daryl to take a seat on the back of his bike.

They met Glenn and the others at the gate and Glenn shot Daryl a surprised look when he saw Aaron riding with him. Daryl just shrugged "Deanna approve it." He simply said and Glenn hold his tongue and got into the car. They had coupled a trailer to Glenn's car to transport the goods they'd gather at the farm.

In order to not cross the Wolves they chosed to take a a little detour to get there. Daryl had to admit he quite enjoyed the trip. He was sure he had lost his precious bike after the Wolves had stolen him from him. But now here he was, riding over country roads with a warm body pressed behind him, belonging to the man who made his nerves tingling every time he touched him. Once in a while he cast a glance behind him but every time Aaron seemed to have his mind elsewhere, his eyes glued straight ahead the route.

It took a few more hours until they got at their designation but they've arrived at the farm in the middle of the afternoon. Glenn and Eugen heade straight to the barn, but Daryl wanted to check out the main house just to make sure they wouldn't miss anything usefull. When they entered they saw that the place was as trashed as they had anticipated, but Daryl could see that it wasn't necessarily caused by plunderers but rather walkers. It looked like they have been a fight between humans and walkers. The bulletholes of a shotgun in the wall in the living room confirmed his suspection.

Daryl ordered Aaron and Jake browse the first floor while he went upstairs to look for anything usefull. He searched every room, but besides the body of a teenage girl who had apparently shot herself in her bedroom, he found nothing that would help them, so he decided to jpin Jake and Aaron on their search downstairs. He found Jake rummaging through the kitchen. When he heard Daryl coming he turned around with the biggest smile possible.

"You won't guess what I just found!" He hold his hands behind his back and grinned broadly.

Daryl arched one eyebrow.

"A pasta maker! Would you believe it?! Mrs. Niedermeyer will freak out!" Jake inspected the machine in his hands and gently stroked it. Daryl just gaped at him for a few second with a slightly enraptured expression.

"Awesome... Where is Aaron?"

Jake finally managed to take his eyes of the pasta maker. "The last time I saw him he was checking the living room." He said still kind of distracted by the the discovery he just made.

Daryl just rolled his eyes and walked over to the living room. But Aaron was no where to be seen, so he started to search the other rooms. After he made his round through all the rooms on the first floor he went back to the kitchen where Jake was still beaming at the treasure he had found.

"Aaron's not here! Where the fuck is he?" Daryl growled and Jake eventually looked at him.

"Err... I don't know. I was kind of distracted..." Jake admitted with a slight blush on his face.

Daryl immediately had a very bad feeling, so he stormed out the front door and headed towards the directions of the food factory. He should have known that Aaron wasn't ready for a run yet. Especially not right next to a place where the Wolves use to rob people.

When he reached the fence that seperated the fields from the forest he didn't hesistate and jumped over it. After a rather unsmooth landing, he took a few seconds to catch a breath and take in his surroundings. That's when he saw the tracks of someone coming through just recently and decided to follow them. A few minutes later he reached the place where Aaron and he had parked their vehicels the day when the wolves had stolen the car and the bike.

His first instinct was to go to the edge where he and Aaron had watched the Wolves but then he saw fresh signs leading in another direction so he decided to follow them first. Soon enough he found Aaron creeping towards the entrance of the factory. Daryl rushed to him and quickly grabbed him and pushed him against the nearest tree.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Getting yourself killed?!" Daryl growled.

Aaron opened his mouth to say something but when he saw Daryl's angry and somewhat worried face he closed it immediately. He wanted to explain himself but suddenly he had the feeling that nothing he would say was enough to satisfy Daryl. "I can't just let them go away with it. You didn't either, did you? You just left that guy to die!"He spat out.

"No, but that was different, it was one to one. You're out for a rampage and you don't care if you get killed during it." Daryl spat out.

Aaron fixed his gaze to the ground and avoided to look Daryl in the face.

Daryl grabbed his chin and forced him to face him. Aaron finally directed his face onto Daryl. "Do you really think that's what Eric wanted... that you get yourself killed in an approach to revenge his death? I've heard what he said to you." Aaron knitted his eyebrows, so Daryl added "He didn't want you to die too. And I don't will let that happen..." Daryl voice was almost a whisper when he said that. He jerked his head away from Aaron's curious gaze and instead focused it on his hand that was gripping Aaron wrist.

Overwhelmed by Daryl's sudden action Aaron just stood there and stared at Daryl's hand that started to slowly stroke his palm. Daryl finally looked up to him and his eyes met Aaron's. After a few breathless seconds Daryl finally uttered "I can't lose you too! It was hard enough to get over Merle's and Beth's death, I don't know if I can't handle..." Daryl cut off. His hand wandered to Aaron's face and his fingers ghosted over his features.

Aaron just stared at Daryl with big eyes. Daryl cupped his cheek with one hand and slightly stroked his lips. Daryl's face was suddenly very near and Aaron's breathing started to speed up, although he wasn't sure why. What was Daryl doing? Was he just trying to sooth him or was this something else? For a second Daryl's gaze wandered to his lips and then quickly went back to his eyes. Before Aaron could read any more into it, they suddenly heard the sound of someone stumbeling through the forest. They both looked up and then saw Glenn coming their way while fighting off a spiderweb that he just walked trough. He looked relieved when they saw them but his expression fastly grew confused when he saw the position they were in.

Glenn recovered from his inital surprise very fast and remebered why he even made his way there "What the hell are you guys doing out here?" He tried to yell with a low voice, in case there were any Wolves near by. "You were supposed to check out the main house, but all of a sudden you're both vanished without any notice."

Daryl pulled himself away from Aaron and put on a serious face. "We thought we saw some suspicious movement around here and wanted to make sure we weren't detected by the Wolves. But it was false alarm." Aaron only managed to nod to that because he was still too confused by the events of the last few minutes. Glenn studied the both of them for a few more seconds before he finally sighed and shrugged.

"Okay, in that case you better help us bringing all the stuff into the trailer. It's quiet tiring to climb up and down that cellar." Daryl run back to the were came from while Aaron stilled tried to process Daryl's behaviour. But when he saw Glenn's annoyed glare he hurried up to follow them back to the farm.

After they've packed up everything they've found at the farm, they headed back to Alexandria, with Glenn's car leading the way and Daryl and Aaron following them on Daryl's bike. Contrary to their ride before Aaron seemed to hold himself back in order not touch Daryl too much, at least until he suddenly yanked Daryl's shirt. Surprised by the sudden movement Daryl's bike wobbled for a couple of seconds before he managed to stop it in a forlorn industrial area.

"Dammit, what the hell was that all about?!" Daryl asked furiosly when he turned and registered Aaron concentrated look towards a building that was labeled 'Johnson print house'. Before he could say anaythig else Aaron descended and run towards the print house. Daryl angrily parked his bike and followed Aaron into the building. He followed aaron running through the empty print house until he finally saw him stop in something that looked like a storage room. There was a smell of paint and chemicals in the air and Daryl was more than curious what Aaron's goal was. He saw him browsing through the shelves until he finally found something that caught his attention. He saw him studying a canister in front of him and then grabbing it with a big grin.

Aaron grabbed the vessel and started to make his way pass the hunter, when Daryl suddenly stood in his way. "Care to explain me what you're doing?" Daryl asked with a slight pissed undertone.

Aaron just smirked at him and asked "Have you ever heard of Hänsel and Gretel?"


	9. Steps

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay but I had trouble with my laptop.**

Daryl looked at Aaron with a blank impression. Had Aaron finally lost it now? Daryl had the feeling that the time with the children had helped Aaron with coping with Eric's death, but now he wasn't so sure anymore.

„Err, yeah, I guess I've heard of it. Why?" Daryl asked cautiously.

"You remember that they spread bread crumbs to find their way back out of the forest? But then the birds ate them, but that's not the point." Aaron said enthusiastically.

"So what's the point then?" Nothing that Aaron said made much sense to him right now, but he was too curious where this was going so he didn't made a move to stop Aaron.

"They left a trail to find their way back. I think that's what we should be doing." Aaron said.

Then he added "When I was in college, I once attempted this art class, just for fun and one of the projects included using illuminating colors. And this one..." He showed Daryl the can. "Is invisible color. You can't see it in the daylight, but in the dark it glows."

Daryl didn't know what to say exactly, so he just waited until Aaron would continue.

Aaron finally looked him in the face and realized that Daryl didn't quite follow him, so he explained "We could use this to follow the Wolves without them knowing. They'll be extremely cautious right now after they robbed us and it will be almost impossible to follow them with our cars to where they're hiding. So I was thinking about ways to follow them without actually follow them. "

Then Aaron made his way back to Daryl's bike. Daryl just shrugged his shoulders and followed him back to their vehicle. While Aaron was fixing the can to the bike with a rope, Daryl finally dared to ask "And how exactly will this help us?"

"Do you know these cars that paint the white stripes on highways and such?" Daryl nodded. "I was thinking about attaching this kind of apparate of one of their cars, with the invisible paint, so we can follow their trail back to their home base. We still have no idea how many of them are out there and how we can defend ourselves against them."

Daryl thought about it for a minute. "And how are we supposed to attach it to one of their cars without them knowing?"

Aaron stopped in his actions and then turned around to him. When he finally spoke up, his voice sounded less excited then before but still confident. "I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I'll come up with something."

Aaron took his seat on the back of Daryl's bike, already deep in thoughts again so Daryl followed him and started the engine to drive back to Alexandria.

When they arrived back home, Aaron went straight back to his home without saying as much as a quick good-bye. Daryl looked after him for a quite a while and then decided to head over to Carol. He needed to talk to someone and she was still the only one with whom he trusted enough to share his personal worries.

When he arrived at the one of their two houses, the one that he called "Rick's house" in his mind, he saw Carol folding freshly washed clothes into a laundry basket. He stood by the door and watched her working and humming a melody he didn't know, while he tried to figuring out what he wanted to say.

Today she was wearing an ensemble of black khakis, a white blouse and a scarf that was tied as a fly that looked so Stepford Wife-like that he couldn't help but chuckle a little. She really rocked that whole innocent, middle-age mother hen style. He wondered how the Alexandrians would react when they would finally see her true bad-ass nature.

Carol faced Daryl and studied his face. He was smiling but she could that he was somehow troubled by whatever has happened on their run. Her first thought of course was that one of them might got hurt or even died, but Daryl seemed more confused than upset, so she hold her tongue until Daryl spoke up.

"Aaron almost got himself killed today and he didn't even care." Daryl said, his gaze fixed on the window, obviously trying to avoid her eyes.

"But you care, very much in fact, don't you?" Carol asked when Daryl didn't continued.

"He wants to avenge Eric's death, no matter the costs. He's going to get himself killed. But I can't let that happen! I just don't know what to do..!"

Carol put down the shirt she was holding and sighed. "Aaron is hurt, and rightly so. The only thing we can do now is to show him that this isn't the end. That there are people who care about him and will do whatever it takes to make this right."

"I'm not sure that'll be enough. He just lost the love of his life..." Daryl trailed off.

Carol saw the pain crossing Daryl's face. She remember Aaron's pained faces when she had visited him over the last couple of days but she had hoped that he would get over it quickly. Aaron had seemed rather calm and stoic.

"Maybe you should move in with him."

"Excuse me?" Daryl asked perplexed.

"He's all alone in that big house, where everything reminds him of Eric. Besides, it's rather crowded in here with all of us living here. You shouldn't sleep on the couch forever. You should have your own room and I'm sure Aaron's house has a guestroom. So you would be able to keep an eye on him."

Daryl wanted to protest, but then thought about it for a minute. It wouldn't be the worst idea, but he wasn't sure if Aaron would agree to that. "Maybe..."

Carol just nodded and smiled at him. "So, how about dinner? I've made sandwiches with self-made bread."

The next day Daryl stood up early and made a quick run to a nearby car shop, they've discovered a few days back. He had to take out two walkers that walked around inside but besides that he didn't run into any troubles. He gathered parts of salvaged cars, that he thought might be usefull. Then he headed back to Alexandria and went to straight Aaron's place.

He knocked at the door and Aaron opened it after a few minutes, looking like he had just woken up, his hair all messed up and dressed only in a shirt and boxers.

Daryl was taken aback by that sight. He allowed himself a few seconds to linger and admire how cute it made Aaron look when he wasn't all that properly dressed like he normally was. It also made him realize that Aaron was more built than he usually seemed in his khakis.

Aaron finally brought him back into reality when he asked "Daryl? What are doing here? It's like..." He looked at his watch and checked the time. "10 a. m..." Aaron suddenly realized that he had slept longer than he had expected. He didn't catch much sleep over the last couple of days but tonight has been the first night he actually slept through and apparently over. His body obviously finally gave into his need of sleep and having something to focus on had took his mind of what had happened to Eric at least for one night.

"I thought about your idea and brought some stuff we could use to build this thing you were talking about." Daryl hold up the garbage bag he was holding in his hand.

"Yeah, right." Aaron stepped aside to let Daryl in. "Just let me get decent and I meet you in the garage."

Daryl walked over to the garage. Feeling silly to use the rare electricity they had in Alexandria he opened the garage door to let the daylight in. It was a nice day and he stood there for a moment to enjoy the sunlight on his face.

Aaron walked into the garage and saw Daryl standing there, his hands still on the handle of the opened garage door and leaning slightly forward towards the sunlight. His eyes were closed and for the first time time since he'd met him, Daryl face showed something like peace and he had a small smile on his face. It suited him. Daryl uses to play the hard ass most of the time, but Aaron knew there was a soft side to him, he had seen it when he had watched the group and saw how Daryl took care of them.

He wanted to get to know Daryl better, he already felt very close to him after what they've gone through even if it was only a few weeks they've spend together. He had always felt a little separated from the rest of Alexandria but somehow he felt that he could find some real friends in Rick's group, maybe because there were out there so long and understood how life was outside Alexandria's walls.

He couldn't deny that he somehow felt drawn to Daryl in particular. It wasn't only because he was gay and Daryl sure was an attractive man, even if showers obviously weren't his best friends but also because Aaron always had have a heart for outsiders and haunted souls. Mostly due to his own troubled past with his psycho mother and the hard times after he had come out. He never understood how people could hurt each other, but he had experienced it himself over and over again and he could tell that Daryl has been hurt a lot in his past. It takes one to know one.

Aaron cleared his throat to let Daryl know he was there. "So, you wanna start?" He asked and Daryl turned around and nodded.

They've spent two hours working on Aaron's idea when they saw Carol approaching her way through Aaron's front yard.

She leaned against the garage door frame and smiled at them. "You left so early this morning, Daryl, before breakfast so I thought I would bring you some lunch. There's enough for you too, Aaron." She hold out a bag and handed it to Aaron.

"Thanks, Carol. I didn't have time for breakfast too this morning because Daryl kinda dragged me out of bed this morning, so it's very much appreciated."

After that Carol raised an eyebrow and smirked at Daryl, while Daryl shot her a furious glare and Aaron could see that they shared some kind of silent conversation through their eyes.

"I didn't mean it literally. He just woke me up this morning. I'm usually up at 7 in the morning, but I kinda overslept today." Aaron tried to explain to clear the air between them, because he could see how tense Daryl was suddenly.

Carol still had a huge smile on her face when she turned to Aaron "What exactly are you guys doing?" She asked curiously.

Aaron explained his idea to her, while she was curiously inspecting the thing they were working on

"It sounds like a good idea." She said. "But I guess it will take quite some time until you actually make it work. I guess, you and Daryl will have to work at it for quite some time."

Carol looked at Aaron and her face suddenly light up. "You know, today I've spent almost an hour to clean up after Daryl with all his clothes, the sheets on the couch and all the other mess he always leaves in our living room. So I was thinking..." Carol made a thinking face while she saw Daryl making cutting throat gestures behind Aaron's back.

"Wouldn't it be easier if Daryl would just stay here in the meantime. You would have more time to work on your project and I would finally have a living room that I could present to guests. I'm dying to finally have a dinner party again like my husband and I used to have before." Carol put on her housewife-face again and looked at Aaron with big, innocent blue eyes.

Daryl rolled his eyes at her behind Aaron's back and shot Carol a furious glare before Aaron suddenly turned around and faced him. He immediately put on an innocent face.

"You're sleeping on the couch?" Aaron asked.

"Er... yeah. It's better than sleeping on the ground of barn anyway, so..." Daryl said shyly. He avoided Aaron's glance and instead bored his eyes into Carol.

"There's a spare guestroom here. You can take it if you want. It might be nice, it's too quiet in here in the morning anyway." Aaron said and his face got a sad look. His eyes wandered into nowhere and Daryl knew he was thinking about Eric. He was about to say something but before he could, Carol slapped her hands together. "Great, it's settled then." She acclaimed cheerfully.

"I'll bring your stuff over later." She said winked at Daryl and then started to walk back to Rick's house. Then she suddenly turned around. "Oh, by the way, Deanna is holding a community meeting tomorrow afternoon, I think you two should go there and tell them about your idea."

Daryl watched Carol until he was sure his voice was steady enough. "You sure about this?" Daryl asked his face still directed to the street. "Me staying here, I mean." he added.

Aaron looked at him until Daryl turned his head to look at him. "Yeah, I'd like that. I can use a friend right now."

Aaron smiled at him, but Daryl felt a slight sting in his heart at the word "friend". He tried and forced his lips into a small smile in return before he turned back to the table to work on their project. Aaron put one of Carol's sandwiches in front of him, but suddenly he wasn't hungry anymore.


	10. Search

The next morning Daryl woke up in his own bed, for the first time since the prison. The curtains weren't closed so the sun shone directly into his face. He closed his eyes and cuddled himself closer into the sheets. They were very soft and smelled like lavender. He draped the blanket over his head to keep out the light out but shortly before he could fell back asleep, he heard sounds downstairs. Finally realizing were he was, he dragged himself up and looked around the room.

Aaron had cleared out the guestroom for him. The bags with his stuff were stashed into the cupboard next to the door and his crossbow was sitting on the table under the window. His pants and his vest were still lying on the chair that was sitting right next to the bed. He made a quick sniff test on the pants and decide that they might needed a wash so he grabbed them and and some socks and underwear that he had in his bag and walked downstairs.

He headed to the washing machine in the gangway between the house and the garage and throw his dirty clothes into the machine but decided to put the shirt he was wearing in too, after he took a look at it. He had worn it for weeks now and it just didn't feel right to wear something dirty like that around here. Aaron was still busy with preparing breakfast when he walked by so he decided to take a quick shower. Rick and the others were used to his smell but in this clean house that wasn't his he felt like he would be intruding. The warm water running over his body felt nice and the shower gel smelt a lot like Aaron.

He pulled a towel around his waist and headed to the kitchen to see what Aaron had prepared for breakfast. Taking a seat at the kitchen table he was surprised to see a cooked egg on his table with something that looked liked a grilled cheese sandwich, made of self-made bread. "You have chickens around here?" Daryl asked while taking a big bite of his sandwich and chewing loudly. He noticed Aaron staring at him, with another grilled cheese balancing on his spatula : Daryl grabbed Aaron's wrist and directed it towards the plate on the other side of the table so the grilled cheese landed on it.

Aaron pulled himself together and took a seat across from Daryl, slightly blushing. They ate their breakfast in silence until Aaron finally spoke up. "The meeting starts in an hour, so maybe you put some clothes on." He said still trying to not look at Daryl's bare chest.

Daryl noticed that Aaron hadn't eaten much of his breakfast when he shot a glance back at him, but when he saw Aaron's somewhat mesmerized look on his back side he started to feel unconscious. His walk became kinda shaky, when he finally realized that he was almost naked in front of Aaron. Was he checking him out? Or was it because of the scars of his father's abuse? Daryl didn't dare to look back again and hurried up to get back to his room.

The community meeting revolved mostly about making sure that no one else entered the town and planning runs to restore the supplies. Aaron didn't say much until Carol nudged him. He made a few gestures towards her to keep her mouth shut, but Deanna obviously caught it nevertheless. "Is there something you wanna tell us, Aaron?" Deanna asked.

Aaron's face paled immediately so Daryl decided to jump in. He explained Aaron's tracing idea and then waited for the protests of the other people, but it never came. They all seemed to think about it.

Deanna finally spoke up "Well, the idea itself isn't bad, but I don't know how you imagine to to apply it to one their vehicles."

Aaron stood up and tried to gather himself for what he had to say next "This guy Daryl met said they will come back and if they will... why don't we just let him take what they want?" He looked around and saw anger and disbelief written all over their faces. "We could attach the color on the trailer and hand it over to them with the supplies they want. Well, and then we follow the trail."

Deanna studied the faces in front of her. "How about we focus our energy on replenishing our supplies and trying to find one of these other communities this guy was talking about?"

Aaron looked taken aback but tried to pull himself together when Deanna looked him straight in the eyes.

"You and Eric checked out all the areas in a 200 mile radius besides the ones in the west." Deanna traced her hand over a map that she had laid out on a podium in front of her.

"Yes, because the roads there were blocked. There was no way to get the bus through this."

"But now it's not about bringing people in, it's about finding allies. And with Daryl s bike you have the opportunity to get through the blockage. If we're able to find another community we might be able to defend ourselves if we join forces.

Aaron gritted his teeth but didn't dare to protest because he could see Deanna's point, somehow.

"Just try to find other places with people. When you do, don't try to approach them yourself. Just report back and we'll handle it from there." Deanna said sternly. "I think that's enough for tonight. We'll have another meeting in a week from now."

Aaron stormed out of the room and Daryl decided to follow him. He caught up with Aaron very quickly and stepped in front of him to stop him in his tracks and Aaron did. Aaron looked upset when he raised his face to Daryl.

"What do you want, Daryl?" Aaron asked, sounding rather tired than angry.

"I think Deanna's right. We should find these other communities. We know that the Wolves probably had attacked them too. Maybe they will know more about them. Maybe they'll help us. And if they don't... who says we can't use them to trail these bastards anyway?"

Aaron let sink in Daryl's words and seemed to realized what he was saying between the lines. "You think you'll manage to get up at 8 in the morning?" Aaron asked. "I'll make you a killer breakfast and you'd better enjoy it because I'm pretty sure we'll be on the road for a few days."

Daryl slightly smiled at him and started walking back to Aaron's house. After a few steps he turned around. "I like my eggs over easy."

They hit the road around 9 a. m. the next day, their backpack filled with Carol's sandwiches, canned noodles and stale candy bars so they wouldn't have to look for food for at least two days. Daryl realized that Aaron has been right about the difficulties to follow the highway to the west when he saw all that cars that blocked the road. But with his bike and due to the fact that there have been a couple of very dry weeks, they were able to drive around the hundred cars that blocked the streets by driving through the fields beside the roads a couple of times.

A few miles later the streets finally became negotiable and they managed to make a couple of miles without needing to make any detours in the fields. After a few minutes Aaron tipped Daryl on the shoulder to get his attention. "I think we should stop."

Daryl slowed the bike down and stopped it in an area we're they had a good oversight, then he turned his head to Aaron. "Why would we stop? The path seems clear."

Aaron made a gesture to street towards them. "Yeah, but doesn't it look too clear?" He asked and looked at the cars that were sitting beside the road, like their owners just had left them there after they run of gas but managed to at least get them of the road that they wouldn't be in the way. "Do you see how many cars are here, yet none of them is on the street."

Daryl studied the street before him and suddenly realized what Aaron meant. "It's like someone had roamed them aside. You think it's a trap?"

"No. I think whoever did this, cleared the road to make it easier to get through. You know what that means?" Aaron asked when he looked at Daryl. "There are people here."

"You think it's a trap?" Daryl asked after he thought about Aaron's conclusion.

"I don't think so. Have you noticed that we haven't seen any walkers for miles? I think they've cleared this area so they would have it easier to go on runs or whatever." Aaron now looked excited. "I think there could be a community nearby!" He exclaimed happily.

"Okay, calm down, kiddo. We don't know how long it has been since those streets got cleared. How do you expect to find them?"

"We wait for them to pass by." Aaron answered and then thought about their next move for a minute. "I guess our best bet would be to follow this route until we come across a crossroad. I think our odds to see someone coming by would be way better there.

"Alright, let's go then" Daryl said. "You know, you can be a real smart-ass sometimes." He added when he started the bike again and looked at Aaron with a grim face.

"I know, but that's why you love me." Aaron said with a big smile and Daryl gripped the handles very tight because for a second he thought Aaron had figured out his feelings. But when he saw Aaron's smirk, he realized that he might overreacted and Aaron's was just messing with him, so he roared the engine and focused back on the way before him.

Half an hour later, they finally found the crossroad they were looking for and Daryl directed his bike behind a billboard to hide it from sight.

Aaron climbed of the bike. "I think this could work. Let's stay here at long as we can. If we're lucky someone will come through here and then we follow them." He opened his backpack and took out two of Carol's sandwiches and handed one of them to Daryl, while he took a seat on the left side of the billboard so he could peek around it to watch the roads. Daryl took the sandwiches and placed himself on the other side.

"How long to you plan on staying here?" Daryl asked after he took a bite and chewed loudly.

Aaron shot him an amused smile. It remembered him of the night he had invited Daryl over to eat spaghetti but he didn't dare to get too much into it because it would just remind him about Eric so he shook it off. "As long our supplies last. We can make it back to Alexandria in half a day now that we know what we're dealing with."

It was almost dark when they've finished their meal and it started to get a little chilly. Aaron pulled his jacket tighter around himself to keep warm. Daryl saw his movement. "Maybe tomorrow we should build some sort of shelter if we're going to stay here for a few days. A fire is out of the question if we want to avoid that anybody will spot us but a shelter would at least prevent us from the wind."

Aaron nodded and stifled a yawn, that didn't escape Daryl's attention. "You look tired. I'll keep first watch and wake you in a few hours so you can take over."

"Thanks." Aaron said and laid down. He felt sleepiness wash over him rather quickly despite the uncomfortable ground, but he felt safe around Daryl and after the last few sleepless nights he now welcomed the comfort of a good night sleep.

He had a weird dream about him and Daryl living in the suburbs, in a world without zombies, where Daryl was apparently a lawyer or something because he was wearing a suit and they shared breakfast before Daryl headed off to work in a black Prius. Daryl looked very handsome in this unusual outfit and Aaron felt taken back to the time when Eric and he had that sort of life, when he wasn't on a mission in some place far away in the world to bring medicine and supplies to villagers in war-zones. The dream suddenly ended when he felt Daryl shaking his shoulder to wake him up. Aaron blinked a few times before he realized where he was. He looked around and noticed that the sun was almost rising.

"Why didn't you wake me sooner? I thought we would take turns in watching." Aaron asked, still a little sleepy.

Daryl avoided his gaze and Aaron could have sworn to see a slight blush on his cheeks. "You looked so peaceful and I figured that you needed some rest. I guess you didn't catch much sleep over the last week." Daryl sat down beside him and after a minute or so he asked "You smiled in your sleep... did you have a nice dream?"

Now it was Aaron's turn to blush. He cleared his throat before he answered. "Yeah, I had a dream about Eric, when we had first moved in our house. We had a few weeks to settle in before I had to go to the Sudan and just enjoyed each other's company. It felt like home, the first real home I ever had."

Although he was lying about the person in his dream, he didn't lie about the warmth he had felt. Being around Daryl made him feel accepted and secure. He never had a straight friend like Daryl who just accepted him for what he was and didn't expect him to jump him any second. That's why he felt kind of bad that in his dream it seemed like they lived as a domesticated couple even if there hasn't been anything sexual in it. He also felt like he betrayed Eric. Eric was the first love of his life and he wasn't dead for a week and now he already started to fall for another guy. A guy that would never feel about him that way anyway just made it worst.

He guessed that Daryl wasn't the kind of guy who made friends easily, and he didn't want to betray his trust by having inappropriate dreams about him. Daryl didn't comment on what he had said and seemed to be in deep thoughts when Aaron finally dared to look at him. Aaron secretly studied his profile when Daryl continued to watch their surroundings with a stoic gaze.

When he was sure that Daryl wasn't aware of him watching him, he took his time to study the man beside him more thorough. He saw the small lines around his mouth that seemed like Daryl was chewing on his cheeks to keep himself from saying something and the slight burrowing of his brows. Aaron was unsure how to interpret that. Was Daryl uncomfortable with the thought of him being gay or was it something else...? He couldn't tell. Daryl never seemed to have a problem with him and Eric but maybe he'd just tried to be social for once.

He shook his head in attemp to take his mind of Daryl's insight and started to go through their stash. Calculating the food and water they had, he came to the conclusion that their supplies would proably not last long enough to stay here more than a week, if they wouldn't find something drinkable in the next few days. "I think we should look for some water. We have enough food, but to survive on that and stay alert, we need more fluids."

Daryl nodded and stood up. "I'll go look for some water. Maybe I can shoot some squirrels on my way there... or some possums... for dinner." He shot Aaron a shy smile when he said that before he walked of the forest nearby.

Aaron had waited the whole day for Daryl to come back to their camp. But when he did he saw, that the misshaped shadow that was walking towards him, was in fact Daryl with something big strapped to his back, he let out a sigh of relief.

The next second Daryl placed the thing that he had carried in front in front of him and it took Aaron a second to realize what it was.

"It that a goat?!" He finally managed to spudder out.

"Yes, I came across her when I made my way back to you and she was trapped in a bear trap. There was no way to get her out there so I thought I should save her the suffer and made her our meal for tonight and the days following." Daryl said with a slightly sad undertone. He caressed her fur for a few seconds before he took out a knife and stated to skin the animal. Aaron just sat there and watch it silently. in awe. Daryl was a hunter for sure, but he valued life more than anybody else he had met since it all has started, even it was only an animal. Aaron knew that Daryl had killed people too, but only for the need of survival of his "family" and he knew that he never had taken it lightly. He could see the pain in Daryl's eyes. He had to keep himself from reaching out and stroking Daryl's cheek to comfort him. He didn't even realized that he had raised his hands towards Daryl until the said one looked at him confused. "What'cha doing?"

Aaron felt his cheeks burning red and the only anwser he could come with was "I thought the fur would make a nice attachement to a jacket I was working on..."

Daryl raised an eyebrow and then shrugged and turned his attention back to the goat. What he didn't see was, that after that Aaron crushed his head to the ground in attempt to get rid of every feeling or thought he had about Mr. Daryl Dixon. After a few seconds of dizziness he realized, that it didn't worked at all, so he just laid back and waited until Daryl was finished with skinning and gutting.

After a week they were still there, hiding behind the billboard, eating smoked goat meat and sometimes beans and other canned vegetables from their stahsh and watching the crossroad in front of them. Sometimes Daryl would go out for a hunt while Aaron stayed at their camp to keep watch.

Today they were lying around lazily because they've still had enough meat from the day before, when Daryl actually managed to shoot two rabbits and waited for something to happen. Aaron was sitting and watching the road and once in a while his gaze drifted to Daryl who was taking a nap.

His was lost in thoughts about the handsome man lying in the grass just a few steps away from him when he heard something that sounded like an engine. He sat straight up and concentrated on the noise and tried to figure out where it came from. Meanwhile he moved to Daryl and shook his shoulder to wake him up. Startled by the sudden touch, Daryl throw his arms up in surprise and accidentaly hit Aaron in the face. Aaron let out a sound of surprise and pain what caused Daryl to awake fully. Seeing what he has done he placed his hands at Aaron's face and checked for a broken nose or something.

"You ok?" He asked while he touched Aaron's nose and cheekbones to make sure nothing was broken. Aaron, still a littly dizy from the punch he just received just stared at him. At that moment a vehicle suddenly passed by the road. Aaron and Daryl both frozed, still gazing at each other and silently talking through their eyes to not move, because any sudden movement could draw attention to them. After a few seconds Aaron finally dared to ask "Was that what I think it was or did you knock me harder than I thought?"

Daryl didn't wait to answer and rushed to the road to watch the passing vehicle. "Who the hell would drive a tractor in this time and age? It's slow and loud as fuck."

Aaron appeared beside him "Whoever it is, I've got the feeling they're not alone."

"You thinking a community?" Daryl asked and Aaron just nodded. "Well, let's follow them then."

They jumped on Daryl bike, not bothering to gather their stuff. In any case, they could come back later to fetch them. They kept a secure distance from the vehicle in front of them, not worried about the noise because they were sure, whoever was on the tractor couln't hear them over the noise of their own vehicle. Ten minutes later the tractor turned left, into a small road that leaded to a small hill and disappeared out of their sight behind some kind of wall. Daryl stopped the bike behind a bunch of trees and inspected the hill. The wall was mainly build of long, wooden sticks that were rammed into the ground, aimed mostly to the outside, apparently meant keep out walkers. Behind that he could see railings that seemed to surround several smaller and bigger buildings.

Daryl parked the bike and he and Aaron slowly sneaked up the hill to get a better look at whatever they've discovered. When they reached the first wall, they dodged behind the stakes. They saw the tractor pulling into a building that looked like a huge barn.

At first Daryl thought they've discovered a farm, but when he took a closer look to the surroundings of the barn, he realized that they were way too many small huts around the big building. No farm would need that many homes for they farmers and their helper. Before he could continue his analyse Aaron suddenly spoke up.

"I think this was a commune. I've read about some kind of cult that lived around here, when I was out for runs and I think that this might be the place where they lived."

"Like some kind of hippie community?" Daryl asked with a disgusted look on his face.

"Well, kinda. They believed in love, peace and living in harmony with nature. " Aaron tried to explain, but after looking at Daryl's impression he added deadpan. "Yeah, a hippie commmunity."

Daryl snorted and continued to watch the small village. Suddenly he heard the clicking of a gun being loaded behind them and without thinking jumped behind Aaron to protect him from shot that never came. He didn't realized that he had closed his eyes to await the fnal blow but after a few seconds of silence he dared to open his eyes and glanced at the guy standing over them.

He couldn't make out much of his features because of the fedora he wore, drawn so that Daryl could see no more than his mouth. Despite that he was dressed in a beige shirt, a brown leather vest and matching brown cargo pants. Daryl tried to stand up, but the guy readjusted the lining of his gun so he stopped immediately. They both stared at each other for a few second before the other man let out a light chuckle and lowered his gun. "Bloody hell!"

These two words triggered something in Daryl. He squinted and dared to take a closer look at the man in front of him.

"Scotty?!"


	11. Old friends

**This chapter is more like a filler to introduce Scott to this storyline but I can promise you that there will finally be some Daryl/Aaron action in the next, more longer chapter that I'll upload on sunday!  
**

* * *

"And there I was, thinking that nothing in this world could surprise me anymore, but here you are, Mr. Daryl Dixon." Aaron could here say the man that was threatening them with a deadly weapon, strangely enough with a very british accent.

He didn't dare to move, so he could only see parts of the man behind him, that pointed a gun towards Daryl. A cold wave run through him, knowing that Daryl would take a bullet for him if necessary in the face of death. But the next moment he started to wonder why the hell this guy knew Daryl by name. Was he part of Rick's group once? Did they cast him out, like he had done with Negan? Before he could follow this track of thought any longer, Daryl spoke up again.

"What the hell are you're supposed to be? The british Indiana Jones? You forgot the whip, though."

Aaron was sure, that something bad was about to happen when Daryl suddenly stood up and the other guy rushed towards them. What he didn't expected was to see those two guys fall into each other arms. Aaron slowly turned around, with his hands still in the air to show subordination but his face showing a very confused impression.

He watched the two men sharing a manly hug and then grinning at each when they pulled away. Shotgun-guy punched Daryl and laughed while he ruffled Daryls hair. Aaron heared the other guy saying something about Merle and Daryl's haircut but he couldn't quite make it out, so instead he just gaped at them during the whole scene, until shotgun-guy finally glanced at him.

"Oh, I think we're rude. Why don't you introduce me to your boyfriend?" The other guy said with a big grin on his face.

Daryl just now seemed to remember that Aaron was still there. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at him apologizing. "Oh, that's Aaron." When Aaron didn't react he added: "Aaron, this is Scott Hawkins!"

Scott held out his hand and Aaron reluctantly took it, not without shooting Daryl a questioning and suspicious glance.

"Nice to meet you!" Scott greeted and enthusiastically shook his hand. Aaron, still overwhelmed about the recent events, didn't answer. Who was this guy? Did Daryl met him on the road? Or was he once part of Rick's group and got cast out for some reason, like his group had done with Negan and his friends? And why didn't Dary correct him, when he was refering to Aaron as Daryl's boyfriend?

Before Aaron could follow this particular train of thought any further, Scott turned around to Daryl and clapped him on his shoulder. "He's cute!"

Daryl just rolled his eyes. Aaron finally managed to form words and asked: "Can someone please explain to me what's going on?!" His voice came out a little more highpitched than he wanted.

A few minutes later, Scott had led to them back into the woods, where had set up a small camp. Half of a animal was still roasting of the rest of a fire when they got there."That's all I have out here and I don't think it'd be wise to bring you two back to my people just yet." Scott said when he handed the rest of the roasted meat to Aaron and Daryl. The smell of the meat caused Aaron's stomach to groal and he started to eat the piece Daryl gave him hungrily.

"I'm going to get more wood for the fire, I guess there's a long night ahead of us." Scott said when he stood up and made his way into the forest. Aaron immediately took the chance and grabbed Daryl's shoulder to get his attention.

Daryl turned his head to him, a amile still plastered on his face and after seeing Aaron's worried face, he managed to ask. "Pwad?" When Aaron continued to stare at him he gulped down the big peace of meat in his mouth and repeated his question. "What?"

Aaaron throw his hands in the air. "Seriously? We just got almost killed by some guy and now we're eating his meat while he's sneeking off to god knows where and you're asking me 'What'?" He snapped at Daryl. When he realized how bitchy he sounded he instantly closed his mouth and took a deep breath before he continued. He wasn't even sure why he was so pissed suddenly, but the whole situation confused him and he didn't understand why Daryl was so calm and why the hell these two man seemed to be so close when he had never heard Daryl mentioning someone with the name Scott before. "Who is this guy?" He finally asked after he had calmed down a little.

Daryl watched the dying fire in front of them for a while before he answered. "Scott was the best friend I ever had. The only real friend I ever had, I guess. Before, you know? Before shit has been going down." Before the apocalypse, Aaron added in his mind. Daryl set down the bone he had been nagging on and looked at Aaron again. "You know that before all this I spent my days by drifting with Merle, that's where I first met Scott. We all shared a couple of drinks at a bar one night and after that I didn't see him again for a about a year. Then Merle got caught selling drugs and went to prison for a couple of months and I was on my own. During that time I tried to find any kind of work to get through the time until Merle would be released and then one day Scott suddenly showed up at the bar again and offered me a job."

Aaron had listened silently but now his curiosity about the this mistreious man of Daryl's past had to be satisfied so he blurted out what came to his mind first. "So he was some kind of drug dealer, too?"

Daryl looked at him with an expression that was a mix of anger (about him calling Merle a drug dealer he guessed), horror and confussion. "Hell, no!" Daryl growled and Aaron was on the verge of stuttering out an apology when Daryl added. "He was a grifter. The best one in the business and he always played it big."

Aaron now looked even more flabbergasted than before. He thought about a way to tell Daryl that that wasn't really much better than being a dealer or any other kind of criminal but Daryl could obviously read in his face what he was about say. "He always only ripped off people who deserved it. People who wanted to make money without actually doing something for something or didn't care if they screw the poor and helpless to get richer themselves." Daryl tried to explain and soften the blow.

Aaron still seemed sceptical. "So you're saying he was like a modern Robin Hood? Take from the rich and give it to the poor?" He asked with an raised eyebrow.

"Well, kinda. If you bear in mind that he always consider himself and his crew as "the poor", then I guess you could say so." Daryl grinned and let out a little chuckle as he suddenly remembered something. "One time he actually convinced this rich dude that he was selling him the Golgen Gate Bridge because the city needed money. I wish I could have seen his face when that bastard realized that it was all a sham and that he would never see his desposit of 500 grand in cash ever again."

"The Golden Gate Bridge...?" Aaron gaped at him with big eyes while he tried to process what Daryl had just told him.

"Anyway, he took me in. We've worked a couple of gigs together and became very close. And he kinda started to groom me to become a grifter like him and after a few months I was like his right hand. It was the first time in my life, that I could be myself and it was actually appreciated. He accepted me for who I was and we became good friends." Daryl paused and then sighed slightly. "And then Merle got out of prison. He heard that Scott had taken me in and he wanted to work with us, but Scotty refused... rightly so, I guess. Merle was a screw-up and Scott didn't work with that kind of people. Like I said, he was the best and you couldn't afford mistakes in that kind of business. Scott offered me to come with him to England to continue working. But after prison Merle was a mess and barely survived, so I decided to stay with him to help him get back on his feet. And that was it. And haven't seen Scott since, but there hasn't been a day I haven't regret it. I have never been happier then back then, the time with him was the best of my life. Scott had always believed in me, I guess that's why I feel that I have to believe in him now, too."

With that Daryl looked at him and his eyes locked with Aaron's, trying to make him understand. And Aaron kind of got it. Scott must have been like the bigger brother Daryl had always wanted. Someone who understands what he has been going through, someone that were there for him no matter what and stood up for him. Someone who showed him that he was capable of more than just being a drifter.

Aaron finally spoke up. "I get it Daryl, I really do. But times are different now. You can't know if he's still the same person you knew back then. He could lead us into a trap as far as we kno..."

Before Aaron could finish his sentence, Scott walked out of the forest, carrying a big pile of branches. Aaron shut his mouth immediately and awkwardly continued to gnaw on the bone in his hand.

"So you were talking about me, I guess?" Scott said when he dropped the branches next to the fire. He stood there casually but Aaron could see his right hand sneaking up to his gun and Aaron was sure Daryl had seen it too.

Without thinking Aaron moved to grab his gun as well, but Scott had already pointed his shotgun at him before he reached it.

"Don't." Was the only thing Scott said. Daryl hadn't moved at all, quietly observing the situation in front of him. Scott glanced at him for a second and lowered his gun a little. "I think it's time we have a proper talk."


	12. A step toward

"You want to talk? Fine by me, but then stop pointing guns in my face." Aaron spat out and glared at Scott.

"First you have to answer me one question." Scott anwered calmly, his weapon still somewhat pointed in Aaron's direction and studying his face. For a second he looked over at Daryl and Aaron saw his face soften a little. "I'm sorry, Daryl. But I have to protect my people." He added.

"So are we." Daryl responded. "Fine, We'll answer you, but I have a question for you too."

Now Scott smiled and he lifted an eyebrow in surprise. "Now, what question would that be?"

"Why are you here?"

"Excuse me?" Confusion was written all over Scott's face. "This is where I live."

"I get that, but why are you here? I mean... outside?

Daryl hadn't taken his eyes of Scott the whole time, studying his reaction and after a few more seconds Scott couldn't hold the gaze any longer and his eyes drifted over to the compound. "I'm their look-out. And recently there... well, let's just say there are some things I don't see their way and it causes some tension sometimes. So I prefer to stay out here as much as I can."

Scott looked up again and his gaze wandered from Daryl to Aaron. "Now it's my turn, I guess. Why are YOU here?" He directed gunpoint at Aaron. "And don't tell me you got here by accident. You were looking for something!"

"We're looking for allies."

Scott seemed taken aback by this answer, but then jerked his gun a little to signale Aaron to continue.

"We have... " Aaron stopped but after checking with Daryl through eye-contact he continued. "A camp. We were safe there until recently. Then bad people attacked us, raided us and killed friends of ours..." Aaron gulped down the lump in his throat. "These people... they're calling themselves Wolves and we need help to defeat them. It won't be long until they'll come back for more."

Daryl had watched Scott closely during Aaron's speech and he didn't obviously reacted to anything that Aaron said, but Daryl still noticed how Scott slightly stiffened when he heard the name "Wolves". But Scott just shook his head. "We can't help you with that. My people are no warriors. I'm sorry." With that he turned around, but not before looking back at Daryl with a sad smile. "It was nice to see you again, Daryl."

Daryl hurried after him and yanked him around by his arm. "Wait!" The two men stared at each other before Daryl continued. "You know them! The Wolves?! Don't even try lying to me, I could see it in your face!"

Scott flinched and turned his eyes to the ground before taking a deep breath. "Yes, I do. They came to us a few months ago. They stole all our crop and killed a douzen of us."

"Then why won't you help us?" Daryl asked confused.

"Because we're working with them!" Scott shouted but then closed his eyes for a second and then faced the other two men. "They came back a few days later, with their leader... and they made us an offer."

Daryl took a step back and shot a glance at Aaron. He could see that Aaron looked at Scott with big eyes, shock and worry reflected in them.

"What kind of offer?" Daryl asked.

"We'll give them half of our crop every month and in return they would leave us alone and even protect us from other groups that try to steal what we have." Scott's words were tinged with opressed anger and he bored his gaze into the ground.

"Why would you do that?!" Daryl croaked.

"It wasn't my decision to make, okay?!" Daryl could see the hurt expression on Scott's face, mixed with disappointment and shame "Like I said. My people are no warriors." He said with an almost toneless voice and he looked back up to meet Daryl's eyes. They both just stood there until they heard Aaron mutter. "A Zombie-mafia? I guess now I have seen everything..."

Hearing that Daryl and Scott couldn't hold back a shy grin when they eventually looked each other in the eyes again. "Like I said, I think your boyfriend's really cute." Scott mentioned with an arched eyebrow. Daryl blushed furiosly at that. Then Scott's face got serious again. "Just because my people aren't warriors... doesn't mean I am too. So if you want my help, I'm in."

Daryl's face slightly lit up when he heard that. He looked back at Aaron for a second. "We actually have a plan to track them down to their camp." Aaron opened his mouth as if he wanted to protest but Daryl signaled him to hold his breath for now. "But we need get hold of one of their cars to do so without them noticing and we have no idea how." Daryl continued.

Now it was Scott turn to smile. "Well, I guess, that problem should be easy to solve."

According to Scott, one of the girls in "Haven", that's what his people called their compound, had an affair with one of the Wolves. He was part of one of their watch-dog duos that controlled the area from time to time to keep out other groups that would be a threat. Apparently, he met with the Haven-Girl every Wednesday in the nearby forest, north of the camp.

Scott and Daryl decided to meet again in the morning in two days, on Wednesday, at the same spot. Daryl and Aaron were to bring their device to track the Wolvs back to their HQ and Scott would make sure to figure out a plan to get to their vehicle.

Once the plan was set, Daryl saw Scott off and guided Aaron towards the direction of their bikes. As soon as they were out of sight and earshot, Aaron pulled Daryl behind a tree. With one hand he signaled Daryl to stay quiet. Aaron watched the street to the compound until he saw Scott walking towards the main gate nd finally get into. When he saw Daryl's friend getting inside, he let out a sigh, that sounded somewhat releaved and also disappointet. Daryl hadn't moved and just studied Aaron during it and couldn't hold back a small snort, when Scott walked into the compound. "I told you we can trust him."

Aaron just walked away without ever looking at him. "I just needed to make sure he's really one of them." He started walking back to their hiding space. After a few steps he suddenly stopped. "You know that the device we were working on still doesn't work, right? So why did you make that deal?" Aaron turned around and looked at Daryl, puzzled.

Daryl smirked when he walked past Aaron. "I had the feeling that Eugene was a little bored lately so I gave him something to do while we were gone."

They made their way back to Daryl's bike and hit the road as soon as they've gathered all their stuff from their hiding spot. It was night when they arrived in Alexandria. The ward at the gate tried to get some new infos from Aaron about what was going on outside, but stopped immediately when Daryl pasted by right along Aaron's car with a grim expression. Aaron walked straight into his house, Daryl on the other hand parked his bike in the garage.

That's where he found the device that once was only Aaron's idea with a note from Eugene sticked to it. "I made it work, I hope your plan will work as well." Daryl picked up the note and stoved it into his back pocket He sat down on his bike when Microphone walked by. She made it look she was just walking by on her usual road, but Daryl knew that they have been waiting for him and Aaron to return and she wasn't her accidentaly. He stayed quiet when she walked into the garage. "So?... Did you find anyone?" She asked while she looked around.

"No. But we found signs of other people. We didn't have time to follow them because we run out of food, but we're about to inspect them further, as soon as we have refilled our stocks." He told her.

She jerked and looked at him wih big eyes. "You found people?"

Daryl turned his back on her."We found traces,.We can report more after we got back there and find them. Until then you have to wait." He said.

Michonne nodded and then walked out the garage. "Let us know if you found something."

Daryl stood there for a couple of minutes, trying to fight back the urge to tell his group about the compound. When Michonne was finally out of sight he let out a sigh and checked on the device before he closed the garage door and got into his bed.

The next day Aaron and he were busy preparing everything for the big event ahead. Aaron even cooked a meal for them in the evening, which they shared in silence.

They left before sunrise the next morning to avoid any questions. The guard on the gate was almost asleep when they past there and let them out without any questions.

After a few hours they arrived at the crossroad where they first had seen the tractor. They decided to leave the car there and continue their travel on Daryl's bike, the device secured in Aaron left hand, hile his other arm was grabbing Daryl's waist thuroughly. Shortly before they reached the compound they saw Scott sitting beside the road, smoking something that looked like a peace pipe. Daryl slowly stopped the bike and parked it behind a congeries of rocks and bushes, high enough to hide the vecihel.

Daryl and Aaron joined Scott at his vantage point. He was still dressed in the same outfit that they've seen two days ago, but with the slight addition of a girdle, that hold some sort of phials, across his chest.

"Guess what? I just saw our lover-boy getting into the woods to met his bird. His buddy/friend or whatever is just parking half a mile from here, right on this very road." Scott said and then took a hit of his pipe. He then turned his head and smiled at the two of them. "You both should look for a good place to hide. I'll give you a sign as soon as they hit the road again and find a way to stop them and lure them away from their car so you have the chance to place the device on it." Daryl nodded and dragged Aaron with him into the woods.

About 200 feets away from the road they stopped and sat down to wait for Scott's signal. Daryl had found a glade surrounded by trees where they could rest and enjoy the few rays of sunshin that made it through the thick forrest while the waited for Scott's signal. Before Aaron could make himself comfortable to mayb take a little nap in between, Scott suddenly jumped out the bushes, towards them. "They're coming this way! Quick, look like you're distracted and I'll take care of the rest!" He said while he was running past the two of them.

Daryl, who was just sorting through his arrows, was immediately alert. "And how the hell are we suppose to do that? Looking distracted?!" He shouted after Scott who was already running into the woods. Scott stopped in his tracks, turned around to Daryl and made a thinking face. "I don't know, you could be busy making a fire..." Then Scott's face suddenly lit up. "Or.., you could make out! That's it! No better distraction than some sweet love, innit?!" Whit that he took off, leaving Daryl and Aaron with a equally shocked expression on their faces.

They stared on the spot at which Scott had just disappeared into the forest before Aaron finally broke his gaze and looked at Daryl. "He was joking, right?" He asked, his voice slightly shaking at the thought of him and Daryl making out.

Daryl didn't look at him but murmured a quick "I don't think so." before he focused back in the direction where Scott was coming from. Aaron could see a small blush forming on Daryl's face even if he tried to look unfazed aby Scott's comment. He was about to tease Daryl about it when thy heard the breaking of branches near by. "They're already here..." Daryl whispered, still scanning the forest in front of them. "Do you have a plan?" He asked Aaron silently.

Aaron just stood there, thinking about any plan but they strangely enough all ended with him making out with Daryl. Damn Scotty! If he'd ever see that bastard again, he'd kick his ass into oblivion! While he was still thinking about ways to torture that smug son of a bitch, he heard Daryl say something like "Oh... fuck it" and the next thing knew was that Daryl had grabbed his face and pressed his lips against him.


	13. Traces

Aaron's mind went blank when he felt Daryl's lips pressed against his. He just stood there frozen, while his brain tried to process what was happening. Daryl had his eyes closed and didn't really either, just pressed his lips against the other man's mouth. When Aaron didn't react, he pulled away, opened his eyes. When he saw Aaron just gaping at him, he blushed furiosly but didn't quite let go of Aaron's back of the head he had grabbed to pull the other man closer. He was trying to read into Aaron's eyes but he couldn't tell if he was just flabbergasted or about to punch him into the face or something.

Aaron briefly closed his eyes and shook his head. This finally seemed to break his stare of shock and he blinked at Daryl while he tried to bring his brain to work again while Daryl watched him careful a small blush still creeping over his cheeks. Before Aaron could form a clear thought he heard himself saying "I think we can do that better." He raised his right hand and slightly stroked Daryl's cheek.

"What?" Daryl asked confused with gaping mouth. Aaron took the opportunity to clasp Daryl's face with both hands and plant an open-mouthed kiss on him. Startled, Daryl stumbled a couple of steps backwards, dragging Aaron with him since he was still grapping him by the back of his head only to be stopped by bumping into a tree behind them. Daryl hadn't pushed him away yet, so Aaron became more bold. He angled his head and started moving his lips. Daryl buried his hand into Aaron's hair when he started to response to Aaron's movement. Slow at first the kiss soon got more heated and Daryl clasped Aaron's waist to draw him closer to him.

Out of instinct Aaron tongue darted out when Daryl deepend the kiss. For a second he didn't dare to move, fearing he had scared Daryl off. He couldn't believe that this was really happening anyway. Daryl Dixon was kissing him! This was like a forbidden fantasy coming true, he wanted to enjoy every second of it. And now he might have ruined it by moving to far.

Daryl's grip on his hip tightened and Aaron was sure he would be pushed away any second. Instead, Daryl turned them around so that Aaron now was the one pressed against the tree. Aaron let out a small moan when Daryl pressed against him again and licked over his upper lip like he was asking for permission. Aaron opened his mouth a little more and stroked Daryl's tongue with his own until they were caught in fight for dominance.

Daryl's body was still firmly pressed against his and he could feel his arousal rising. He didn't want Daryl to notice his growing erection so he started shifting, when he suddenly heard breaches breaking at some distance. Apparently Daryl had heard it too, because he stopped their kiss but didn't pull away. Their lips were still slightly touching while they both tried to hear something again. Aaron still had his eyes closed because he wasn't quite ready to face Daryl after what they've just done. So he was very surprised when he suddenly felt Daryl softly nibbling on his neck.

Daryl's mouth wandered up to his ear and Aaron could feel his breath tickle the sensitive spot just behind his earlobe. "They're here." Daryl whispered.

Aaron tried his best to pull himself together and concentrate on the sounds of the Wolves that were closing in on them. It didn't help much that Daryl was absentmindedly caressing Aaron neck with his lips while he listening to his surrounding, probably to keep up the appearance of two lovers having some quality time.

After a minute he could hear someone approaching them from their right but the movement suddenly stopped and he heard something heavy being dropped. While he was stilling figuring out what that sound meant, he heard another sound on the other side, only a few steps away. He felt Daryl tense, but before the hunter could react a guy stumbled out off the bushes and fell flat on his face.

Aaron and Daryl just blinked at each other in confusion before Daryl finally pulled away and walked to the unconscious (or dead?) guy. Daryl lightly kicked the guy but there was no reaction. When he was sure that the Wolf was still pretty much out, he kneeled down to feel his pulse. "He's still alive." He said, the surprise obvious in his voice. Before Aaron could response Scott walked towards them from the same direction as the other guy, spinning some kind of cane in his hand. He smiled down at the Wolf and carefully took a big step over the guy's body to join Daryl and Aaron.

"Well, that was fun. Don't you think?" Scott asked Daryl with a mischievous grin.

Daryl stared at him before he nodded to the body on the ground. "What just happened?" He studied the guy before him and then added. "Did you do that?"

Scott hold up the thing, that Aaron had mistaken for a cane at first. Now he could see that it was in fact a blowgun. Aaron looked at the Wolf again and could see a small object sticking out of his neck. "You used tranquillizer darts?"

"Well, let's just say reading all these books about living like primitive people back at the compound finally paid off." Scott replied and hold up the bamboo stick with which he had poisened the attackers. "They will be out for a couple of hours."

"Now would be a good time to install that thingy of yours, don't you think?" Scott said while he yanked the darts out of the necks of the two men and then headed to the car of the Wolves. Daryl followed him right away, seeming somewhat glad to escape any further discussion with Aaron about what just happened, but before they had made more than a few steps they've heard Aaron mumble. "Why the hell did we need to distract them then, if you had those darts anyway? You could have just take them out right after they got out the car..?"

Scott stopped in his track and made a thinking-face. "Well, now that you mentioned it... I guess, that wasn't necessary at all. Sorry, my bad!" He said, doesn't looking guilty at all and then winking at Daryl. Aaron just stared at him with his jaw dropped while Scott just shrugged his shoulders and then started walking again, not without doing a little jump and summing a song that sounded very much like "Love is in the air". Both Daryl and Aaron just stood there dumbfounded for a minute before Daryl pulled himself together and followed his former best friend, still avoiding to look at Aaron.

One hour later they've had installed the device on the Wolves' car. Scott wanted to go back to his compound to gather some snacks for their hunt, so Daryl and Aaron had to find a hiding spot where they could wait for him coming back before they would be trying to follow the trace that would hopefully be there after all. Even if Aaron trusted Eugene's technical skills, he still wasn't sure if their plan would work. Not to mention the confussion he felt after that making-out session with Daryl and the silence treatment he now received from him.

They just sat there for hours, waiting for Scott's return and none of them dared to say anything. Aaron was sure Daryl had only kissed him to go along with Scott's plan. Daryl clearly thought about Scott like some sort of role model and didn't want to disappoint him, so he just played along. Daryl on the other hand was torn between being pissed at Scott (for setting him up again, in his favor, but still!) and being confussed about the reaction of Aaron. Did he kiss him back out of instinct or was there more to it? Had Aaron thought about Eric when he had pushed his body against Daryl's? Before Daryl could finish that thought he heard someone approaching them. His body tensed, ready to attack whatever danger was coming, but he relaxed when he saw Scott walking towards them.

When Scott finally stood in front of them he crooked an eyebrow and studied the scene before him before he rolled his his eyes. He threw some candy bars to Daryl and Aaron and waited until they had finished eating them. After that he signed them to follow him back to the road where they had last seen the car of the Wolves they have been taking out earlier and then held up his UV flash light. At first they only saw some single drops glowing in the dark, but further ahead the trace became more clear and steady and they had no trouble to following it.

The morning almost broke when they finally reached the end of the glowing trace, that was leading through the forrest. They've reached the tree line and from there they could see the glowing path leading directly to a wired brick wall that enclosed a military facility. Surely there were more traps than that to ensure that no one could infiltrate that camp easily.

Aaron couldn't hold back a groan when he saw how guarded and big the HQ of their enemies was. "How are we supposed to fight that? There's no chance..."

Scott stayed quiet for a minute before he spoke up. "Well, don't be sure about that."


End file.
